The   Founder  of  Mormonism 


THE    FOUNDER    OF 
MORMONISM 

A  PSYCHOLOGICAL    STUDY  OF  JOSEPH  SMITH,  JR.   BY 

I.  WOODBRIDGE  ^ILEY 


ONE-TIME    INSTRUCTOR    IN    ENGLISH 


NEW    YORK    UNIVERSITY 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTORY 

PREFACE  BY 

Prof.  GEORGE  TRUMBULL  LADD 


NEW    YORK 

DODD,    MEAD    y    COMPANY 
1902 


Copyright^  IQ02 
BY  DODD,  MEAD  &  COMPANY 

First  edition  published  in  May,  1902 


THE  CAXTOX  PRESS 
NEW  YORK. 


Introductory  Preface 


THE  rise  and  growth  of  Mormonism  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  phenomena  of  the  nineteenth 
century.  It  is  deserving  of  thorough  investiga 
tion,  whether  the  investigation  be  conducted 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  sociologist,  the 
psychologist,  or  of  the  student  of  politics  or  of 
religion.  But  from  whatever  point  of  view  it  is  re 
garded,  a  correct  understanding  of  its  origin  and 
development  can  be  gained  only  by  the  method 
which  is  applicable  to  all  similar  phases  in  the  life  of 
man;  and  this  method  may  be  described,  although 
somewhat  unsatisfactorily,  as  that  of  historical  and 
comparative  psychology.  In  Mormonism,  as  in  all 
religions  and  religious  communities,  we  have  to 
deal  only  with  peculiar  and  complex  combinations 
of  the  same  ideas,  feelings,  motives  and  deeds,  that 
are  common  to  the  entire  human  race. 

This  essay  of  Mr.  Riley  is  a  conscientious  and 
painstaking  study  of  the  founder  of  Mormonism,  as 
one  among  not  a  few  instances  of  the  astonishing 
results  that  follow  from  the  concurrent  action  of  the 
individual  man  and  the  favoring  opportunity  afforded 


97229 


vi  INTRODUCTORY  PREFACE 

by  the  prevalent  intellectual  and  social  environment. 
Without  Joseph  Smith's  personality  being  taken 
largely  into  the  account,  no  account  can  be  given  of 
the  rise  and  growth  of  the  religious  movement 
which  he  started.  But  Joseph  Smith,  under  other 
conditions  than  those  which  actually  surrounded 
him  in  the  first  third  of  the  last  century,  or  Joseph 
Smith  under  the  conditions  actually  existing  any 
where  in  the  country  in  the  last  third  of  the  same 
century,  could  not  have  become  the  founder  of 
Mormonism.  Man  and  environment  were  neces 
sary  for  a  new  religion  that  should  claim  to  be 
based  upon  a  succession  of  revelations  and  miracles, 
recorded  for  the  world  to  pass  judgment  upon,  in 
the  form  of  printed  books.  Hence  the  necessity 
for  studying  the  man,  not  only  in  his  own  inherit 
ance  and  personal  characteristics  and  experiences, 
but  also  in  his  surroundings — the  people  of  his 
neighborhood  and  time. 

The  material  for  this  study  in  psychology  has 
been  somewhat  peculiarly  difficult  to  acquire  and  to 
handle.  At  the  time  when  the  subject  of  the  study 
lived,  there  was  little  or  no  disposition  or  fitness  for 
considering  such  manifestations  of  abnormal  psy 
chical  development  from  the  scientific  point  of  view. 
And  so  far  as  I  am  aware  no  very  thorough  attempt 
at  such  a  study  of  the  personal  sources  of  Mor 
monism  has  hitherto  ever  been  made.  This  should 


INTRODUCTORY  PREFACE  vii 

be  borne  in  mind  by  the  reader  who  is  fitted  to  form 
an  expert  opinion  upon  the  success  of  the  author  in 
his  effort  to  explain  the  facts  from  points  of  view 
now  somewhat  firmly  held  by  the  modern  student 
of  physiology  and  psychology.  There  is  plainly 
room  for  a  justifiable  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
relative  amounts  of  shrewd  insight,  self-deception, 
disease  of  imagination  and  judgment,  and  conscious, 
intentional  fraud,  which  must  be  admitted.  Un 
doubtedly,  the  mixture  of  all  these  factors  varied 
greatly  from  time  to  time, — as  in  the  career  of  all 
men  who  at  all  resemble  Joseph  Smith,  the  founder 
of  Mormonism.  I  am  sure,  however,  that  no 
student  of  such  phenomena  can  fail  to  appreciate 
the  value  of  the  services  rendered  by  the  author. 
The  larger  circle  of  readers,  who  make  no  claim  to 
a  special  interest  in  abnormal  psychology,  even 
when  it  manifests  itself  within  the  sphere  of  man's 
religious  life,  will  find  much  to  interest  and  instruct 
them  in  this  volume.  I  take  pleasure,  therefore,  in 
thus  briefly  introducing  Mr.  Riley's  essay  to  all 
classes  of  readers. 

GEORGE  TRUMBULL  LADD. 

Yale  University,  New  Haven, 
May,  igos. 


Author's   Preface 


THIS  study  has  been  offered  to  the  Philosophical 
Faculty  of  Yale  University  as  a  thesis  for  the  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  Materials  I  gathered  at 
Salt  Lake  City  in  1894  were  utilized  in  1898  for  a 
Master  of  Arts  thesis  on  the  '  Metaphysics  of  Mor- 
monism.'  The  sources  employed  in  the  present 
work,  as  given  in  the  appended  Bibliography,  are, 
in  the  main,  to  be  found  in  the  Berrian  collection 
of  the  New  York  Public  Library. 

Beside  rare  first  editions  and  Church  publications 
suppressed  by  the  Utah  Saints,  use  is  here  made  of 
some  hitherto  unpublished  manuscripts.  For  these 
I  am  indebted  to  various  correspondents,  and  es 
pecially  to  Mr.  William  Evarts  Benjamin  of  New 
York  City.  For  suggestions  and  criticisms  my 
thanks  are  also  due  to  Prof.  William  H.  Brewer,  of 
the  Sheffield  Scientific  School,  and  to  Prof.  Charles 
J.  Bartlett  of  the  Yale  Medical  School. 

The  aim  of  this  work  is  to  examine  Joseph 
Smith's  character  and  achievements  from  the  stand- 


x  PREFACE 

point  of  recent  psychology.  Sectarians  and  phrenol 
ogists,  spiritualists  and  mesmerists  have  variously 
interpreted  his  more  or  less  abnormal  performances, 
— it  now  remains  for  the  psychologist  to  have  a  try 
at  them. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  May,  igos. 


Contents 


CHAPTER   I 

ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS 

Partisan  Treatment  of  Joseph  Smith's  Character. — 
Advantages  of  the  Standpoint  of  Physiological 
Psychology. — The  Man  in  His  Maturity  Described 
by  Eye-witnesses. — '  A  Phenomenon  to  be  Ex 
plained/ — Smith's  Ability  and  His  Absurdities. — 
His  Writings  Supplemented  by  Suppressed  Sources. 
—The  Origin  of  Mormonism. — Its  Impelling 
Forces  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. — Joseph's 
Strange  Ancestry. — His  Grandfather  Mack's  Nar 
rative. — The  Latter's  Life  of  Adventure  and  Hard 
ship. — The  Old  Soldier's  Ailments  and  His  Re 
ligious  Experiences. — He  Sees  Visions  and  Hears 
Voices. — Similar  Experiences  of  the  Grandson. — 
Mack's  Belief  in  Faith  Healing  and  Miraculous 
Cures. — Erratic  Tendencies  Transmitted. — The 
Prophet's  Mother. — Her  Book,  and  its  Works  of 
Wonder. — Her  Revivalistic  Dream. — The  Smith 
Pedigree  Traced  Back  to  1666. — The  Prophet's 
Father,  His  Restlessness  of  Mind  and  Body. — His 
Seven  Dreams.— Their  Local  Color.— Their  In 
corporation  Into  the  Book  of  Mormon. — Their 
xi 


xii  CONTENTS 

Mystic  Interpretation. — Their  Physiological  Basis. 
Elements  of  Illusion  and  Hallucination. — They  Re 
flect  the  Dreamer's  Notions  and  Beliefs. — Relation 
to  the  Visions  of  Joseph,  Junior 

CHAPTER  II 

ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS 

Western  New  York  in  1815.— Backwardness  of  the 
Country. — Mental  Effects  :  Lack  of  Education, 
Scarcity  of  Books — Religious  Literature  Predomi 
nant. — Some  Rationalism,  More  Sectarianism.— 
Fanatic  Sects. — Revivals,  Their  Unnatural  Meth 
ods  and  Abnormal  Results. — The  Young  Be 
wildered  From  the  Clash  of  Creeds,  Depressed 
From  the  Sombre  Theology. — Joseph  Smith's  Ac 
count  of  His  First  Three  Visions. — The  Psycho 
logy  of  Such  Religion. — Emotional  Pressure  and 
Resultant  Hallucinations. — Religious  Hypnosis  and 
the  Abnormalities  of  Conversion.— Parallel  with 
John  Bunyan. — Joseph  Smith's  Greater  Abnormal 
ities  Due  to  Heredity. — His  Neuropathic  Ancestry. 
— His  Grandfather's  '  Fits.' — Neural  Instability  of 
the  Second  Generation. — Joseph's  Juvenile  Ail 
ments. — Causes  Provocative  of  His  First  Seizure. — 
Intoxication  and  the  Second  Seizure. — Psycho- 
physical  Description  of  the  First  Two  'Visions.' — 
Melancholic  Depression  and  Infernal  Phantasms. 
Smith  Neither  Demented  nor  a  Dissembler. — His 
Condition  Probably  Epileptic. — Its  Non-discovery 
Due  to  Ignorance  of  His  Parents.  His  Fanciful 
Explanations. — The  Symptoms  Inadvertently  Given 
in  the  Biographical  Sketches  and  Elsewhere. — Cor- 


CONTENTS  xiii 

relation  of  Ancestry  and  Progeny. — Seizures  In 
frequent  and  Cure  Spontaneous. — After  Effects  on 
His  Character. — His  Mental  Ability  and  Emo 
tional  Instability. — Interpretations  of  His  Followers,  37 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON:  THE  DOCUMENTS 

An  Alleged  Indian  Record  in  '  Reformed  Egyptian.* 
— The  Psychological  Problem  Twofold. — Belief  in 
the  Actuality  of  the  «  Gold  Plates.' — Theory  of  Their 

Levitation.  —  The    So-Called   Transcription Its 

Transmission  and  Translation. — Judgments  of  Early 
Critics. — Pronounced    Untranslatable. —  Analogous 
to     Automatic    Writing. — A     Home-made      Pro 
duction. — Concealed  Autograph. — Joseph  Smith    a 
Crystal   Gazer. — Reversal   of   Signature. — Uncon 
scious  Cerebration. —  The  Visions  of  Moses. — The 
Revised  Translation  of  the  Bible. — Confidence  in 
His    Own    Learning. — His    Interpretation    of  the 
Word  Mormon. — His  Early  Ignorance. — His  Use 
of  Men,  not  Books. — Sidney  Rigdon. — Joseph  as  a      ^ 
Linguist. — The  Book  of  Abraham. — Original  Manu- 
script  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. — Changes  in  It  and    ^ 
in    the   Printed   Editions. — The   Cowdery    Manu 
script  One  of  Several. — The  First  Duplicate  Copy. 
— Disappearance  of  the   First   Original. — Joseph's    <*"" 
Three   Scribes. — Characteristics   and  Date  of   the 
Alleged    Original. — The    Cowdery    Copy    Prob-   * 
ably  the  Nearest  to  the  Original — Proof  from  the 
Famous    Anti-Polygamy    Passage. — The    Author's 
Preface. — Agreement  with  Joseph's  Confession   of    *— " 
Illiteracy  -       77 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  :  THE  SOURCES 

Size  and  Aim  of  the  Book. — Contents  According  to  the 
Prophet. — Admission  of  Authorship. — The  Environ 
ment  Suggests  the  Sources. — A  Scriptural  Para 
phrase.  Biblical  Borrowings. — Biographical  Hints. 
— The  Dream  of  Nephi  and  of  Joseph  Smith, 
Senior. — Grammatical  and  Rhetorical  Errors. — 
Geography  made  Indefinite  and  History  Obscure. 
— Visions  of  America. — Joseph's  Imaginative  Gifts. 
— Lamanites  are  Modern  Indians  in  Disguise. — The  ^/ 
Aboriginal  Monuments  of  New  York  State. — Theories 

of  Indians  being  the  Lost  Tribes  of  Israel Joseph's 

Summary. — Parallels  with  Prkst's  American  An 
tiquities. — Local  Sources  of  These  Theories. — 

Popular  Errors  in  the  Narrative Joseph's  Fanciful 

Explanations. — Mental  Habits  of  the  Lamanites. — 
Their  Resemblance  to  Local  Sects. — The  Speech 
of  Nephi  Traced  to  its  Sources. — Joseph's  De 
pendence  on  Local  Theology  -  105 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY 

Joseph's  Imagination  Stronger  Than  His  Reason. — 
His  Theory  of  the  Usefulness  of  Evil. — His 
Emotional  Revolt  Against  Calvinism,, — Allusions 
to  Baptist  Doctrines. — The  Methodist  Exhorter  and 
the  Speech  of  Amulek. — The  Mormon  Hierarchy. 
— The  Clash  of  Creeds  not  Harmonized. — Three 


CONTENTS  xv 

Minor    Movements    Reflected Tirades    Against 

Romanism,  Infidelity  and  Free  Masonry. —  The 
Book  of  Mormon  as  a  Criterion  of  Mental  Habits. 
— Joseph's  Constructive  Imagination ;  its  Materials 
and  Limitations. — A  Good  Memory,  but  a  Poor 
Judgment. — Mixture  of  Sense  and  Nonsense. — A 
Fanciful  Family  and  an  Emotional  Environment. — 
The  Marks  of  the  Book  are  the  Marks  of  the 
Man. — Mental  Restlessness  Characteristic  of  the 
West. — A  Comparison  with  Young  Chatterton 
and  the  Rowley  Myth. — The  Literature  of  Dis-^ 
guise  in  America. — The  Spaulding  Theory  Un 
tenable. — The  Book  of  Mormon  Authentic  and 
Indigenous. — The  Gradual  Evolution  of  the  Work  1 39 


CHAPTER  VI 

PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR 

This  Title  a  Growth. — Variety  in  Prophecies. —  - 
Common  Belief  in  the  Predictive. — The  Miller- 
ites. — Joseph's  Indefinite  Millennium. — Some 
Timely  and  Untimely  Warnings. — The  Personal 
Element. — Prophecy  of  the  Civil  War. — Joseph 
the  Seer. — His  Crystal  Gazing. — The  Prevalent 
use  of  '  Seeing  Stones.' — Joseph  as  a  *  Peeper '  and 
as  an  '  Interpreter.' — Methods  of  Auto-Hypnosis. — 
How  Joseph  '  Translated.' — Abnormalities  in  the 
Book  of  Mormon. — Similarities  to  the  Trance 
Medium. — Automatic  Writing. — Joseph  and  His 
Scribes. — Clairvoyant  and  Telepathic  Embellish 
ments. — Self-deception  and  Conscious  Duplicity. — 


xvi  CONTENTS 

Methods  of  Concealment. — The  Ecstatic  Condition. 
— Joseph  Applies  to  Others  the  Principles  of  Sug 
gestion. — Persecuted  and  Made  Notorious. — His 
Acts  as  a  Revelator  -  -  -  175 


CHAPTER  VII 
JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST 

The  Testimony  of  Three  Witnesses. — Was  it  an 
Hypnotic  Hallucination  ? — Three  Productive  Fac 
tors. — The  Suggestibility  of  Cowdery. — His  Ex 
pectant  Attention  Aroused  by  Smith. — The  Latter's 
Preparatory  Successes. — The  Baptismal  Vision. — 
Whitmer's  Persistent  Belief. — Hypnotism  Suggested 
as  a  Cause. — The  Third  Witness  Less  Susceptible. 
— How  Harris  was  Approached  by  Smith. — The 
'  Eye  of  Faith '  and  Long  Continued  Prayer. — 
Joseph's  Account  of  the  Vision  of  the  Gold  Plates. 
— Pseudo-Explanations  of  Smith's  Influence. — Al 
leged  Magnetic  Influence. — The  Religious  Leader's 
Capdvation.  —  Varieties  of  Hallucination.  —  The 
Vision  of  the  Plates  Induced  by  Positive  Suggestion. 
— Loss  of  Extra-Mental  Consciousness  but  not  of 
Memory. — Association  of  Ideas. — Additional  In 
centives  to  the  Psychic  Mirage. — The  Testimony 
of  Eight  Witnesses. — Various  Theories. — Collective 
Hypnosis. — Epidemics  of  Hallucination. — Scanty 
Historic  Connection  with  Other  Movements. — 
Smith's  Case  Sporadic,  His  Achievements  Empirical. 
— Western  New  York  an  Occult  Locality. — Swe- 
denborgianism. — Mesmerism. — Animal  Magnetism. 
— Spiritualism. — Primitive  Beliefs  of  the  Minor 


CONTENTS  xvii 

Sects. — Mormon  Metaphysics. — Smith  a  Crass  Ma 
terialist. — His  Crude  Explanations. — His  Tests  for 
Evil  Spirits. — His  Editorial  on  '  Try  the  Spirits'  -  209 


CHAPTER  VIII 
JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST 

Great  Manifestations  of  Spirits.' — The  Outward  Signs 
of  the  Growth  of  Mormonism. — Elements  of  Suc 
cess. — A  Patriotic  Bible. — Profuse  Revelations. — 
The  Book  of  Commandments. — Its  Relation  to  the 
Book  of  Mormon. — A  Book  of  Discipline,  of  Ex 
egesis,  and  of  Business. — Revamped  Into  the  Doc 
trine  and  Covenants. — Its  Canonization. — The 
Latter-day  Dispensation. — Its  Puny  Beginnings. — 
Sectarian  Narrowness  and  Pride. — Joseph's  Oppor 
tunism. — The  First  Miracle. — Restoration  of  Primi 
tive  '  Gifts.' — Newel  Knight,  the  Demoniac. — 
Devils  '  Spiritually '  Viewed. — Faith  in  Joseph 
Smith. — The  Coming  of  Sidney  Rigdon. — His 
Influence  Over  Smith. — His  Mental  Unsoundness. — 
His  Frenzied  Preaching. — Revival  Ecstasy  in  the 
Western  Reserve.— The  Kirtland  Frenzy.—'  Gifts ' 
of  Tongues,  of  Interpretation,  of  Prophecy. — The 
Philosophy  of  Religious  Mania. — Joseph's  Theory 
of  False  Spirits. — The  Power  of  the  Priesthood. — 
Other  '  Mighty  Works.' — Catalepsy  and  Ob 
session. — Smith's  Final  Standpoint  of  Repression. — 
The  Mormon  Missionaries  and  the  Demoniacs. — 
Hypnotic  Suggestion  and  Unbelief. — Collective 
Hysteria  and  <  Evil  Spirits.' — Witchcraft  and  Black 
Art. — Mormon  Demonology  -  -  245 


xviii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IX 
JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER 

Casting  Out  Devils  Leads  to  Casting  Out  Diseases. — 
Joseph  *  Rebukes  '  the  Cholera. — His  Followers  De 
mand  Miracles  of  Healing — His  early  Ignorance 
and  Overconfidence. — His  Later  Crude  But  Real 
Knowledge  of  Mental  Healing. — Mormon  Medi 
cine. — The  Doctrine  of  Signatures,  and  Indian 
Herb  Remedies. — Joseph's  Uncle,  Jason  Mack,  an 
Alleged  Faith  Healer. — The  Irvingites  and  Mir 
acles. — The  Faith  Promoting  Series. — Holy  Oil 
and  Consecrated  Flannels. — The  Insistence  on 
Faith,  and  Mental  Suggestion. — Subjective  Expecta 
tions. — '  Silent  Treatment.* — The  Mischief  Done 
by  the  Missionaries. — Public  Opposition. — Cred 
ulity  of  the  Laity. — Smith  Recognizes  Certain 
Limitations. — Seven  Lectures  on  Faith. — The  Ap 
proximation  to  Suggestive  Therapeutics. — Stress  on 
the  Mystical  and  Sacerdotal. — The  Variety  in 
Joseph's  '  Cures/ — His  Failures  with  Children. — 
His  Authority  Over  Adults. — Ephemeral  Results. — 
One  Authentic  Success. — Due  to  Simple  or  Hyp 
notic  Suggestion  ? — Joseph's  Medieval  Point  of 
View.— The  Use  of  the  Talisman. — The  Prophet's 
Impressive  Manner. — Favorable  Conditions  Among 
the  Mormons. — Wholesale  '  Cures,'  and  Collective 
Hypnosis 

CHAPTER  X 

FINAL  ACTIVITIES 

Last  Proofs  of  Smith's  Restlessness  and  Instability. — 
Communism  in  Goods  and  in  Wives. — Joseph  the 


CONTENTS  xix 

Socialist. — Communistic  Societies  in  this  Country. — 
The  Shakers,  and  Owen's  New  Harmony. — How 
Smith  Derived  His  Views. — Rigdon's  Kirtland 
Common  Stock  Company. — Smith's  Biblical  Em 
bellishments. — Tithing. — Joseph  the  Financier. — 
The  Safety  Society  Bank  and  the  Nauvoo  House. — 
Plans  and  Specifications  for  the  New  City  of  Zion. — 
Smith's  Various  Commercial  and  Ecclesiastical 
Schemes. — Joseph  the  Soldier. — Mormondom  a 
Military  Church. — Joseph  the  Agitator. — His 
Strange  Mastery  of  His  Followers. — How  He 
Gained  the  Ascendency. — Excommunication  of  the 
Three  Witnesses. — Conflict  Between  Church  and 
State. — Mental  Effects  of  these  Vicissitudes. — His 
Political  Abnormalities. — A  Candidate  for  the  Presi 
dency. — His  Views  on  the  Government. — His  Last 
Utterances. — His  Colossal  Conceit. — The  Final 
question :  Was  He  Demented  or  Merely  De 
generate  ?  -  -  305 


APPENDICES 

I.  CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON         -         -  331 

II.  EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       -         ...  34.3 

III.  THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY  OF  THE  BOOK 

OF  MORMON  ...  367 

IV.  POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      -         ...  397 
V.  BIBLIOGRAPHY 427 


CHAPTER  I 
ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS 


CHAPTER  I 

ANCESTRY   AND   DREAMS 

To  read  the  flux  of  books  on  the  founder  of  Mor- 
monism,  one  might  think  there  were  no  middle 
course  between  vilification  and  deification.  To  sec 
tarians  Joseph  Smith  appears  an  ignoramus,  a  fa 
natic,  an  impostor,  and  a  libertine;  to  his  followers 
— a  prophet,  a  seer,  a  vicegerent  of  God,  and  a 
martyr.1  While  two  generations  of  writers  have 
been  presenting  Smith's  character  in  its  mental  and 
moral  extremes,  they  have  been  ignoring  the  all-im 
portant  physical  basis  of  his  personality.  If  a  solu 
tion  of  his  perplexing  individuality  is  wanted,  the 
pathological  grounds  mu$t  be  examined.  The  state 
of  his  body  goes  far  to  explain  the  state  of  his 

<]  fKTiX-v*"**- 

(/ 

1  Compare  the  early  official  Mormon  organ,  the  '  Times  and 
Seasons,'  5,  856: — 'Joseph  Smith.  With  his  friends: — God's 
vicegerent,  a  prophet  of  Jehovah,  a  minister  of  religion,  a  lieuten 
ant  general,  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  a  worshipper  of  the  God 
of  Israel,  a  mayor  of  a  city,  a  judge  upon  the  judicial  bench. 
With  his  enemies : — A  tavern  keeper,  a  base  libertine,  a  ruler  of 
tens  of  thousands  and  slave  to  his  own  base  unbridled  passions,  a 
profane  swearer,  a  devotee  of  Bacchus,  a  miserable  bar-room  fid 
dler,  an  invader  of  the  civil,  social  and  moral  relations  of  men.' 

3 


4       THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

mind,  and  his  ancestry  to  explain  both.  Like  the 
distorted  views  of  his  grandfather  '  Crook-necked 
Smith '  Joseph's  mental  abnormalities  are  to  be  con 
nected  with  physical  ills. 

Before  getting  at  the  roots  of  his  ramigerous  fam 
ily  tree  and  grubbing  in  the  neural  subsoil,  it  is  well 
to  obtain  an  idea  of  what  the  man  was  like  in  his 
maturity.  Within  a  year  of  Smith's  death  and  in 
the  heyday  of  his  power,  four  different  persons 
visited  Nauvoo,  met  the  head  of  the  Mormon 
Church,  and  wrote  down  what  they  saw.  As  out 
siders  their  impressions  are  worth  having.  The 
first2  said  that  General  Smith  was  not  a  fool,  but 
somewhat  of  a  jockey;  that  his  socialistic  schemes 
were  crude,  but  that  he  had  a  clear  insight  into  the 
grosser  principles  of  human  nature.  The  next  eye 
witness  was  an  Englishwoman,  the  sister  of  a  Mor 
mon  convert.  With  feminine  intuition  she  saw 
into  the  paradoxical  nature  of  the  man,  and  pictures 


* « Universalist  Union/  9,  376.  Interview  of  «W.  S.  B.'  August 
20,  1843.  '  Joe  Smith  is  not  a  fool,  though  he  is  somewhat  of  a 
jockey.  He  has  a  clear  insight  into  the  grosser  principles  of  human 
nature  and  adapts  himself  and  his  theories  to  a  taste  and  disposi 
tion  he  finds  common  enough  among  men — credulity  and  self  in 
terest.  Assuming  much  for  himself,  and  promising  everything  to 
his  followers,  he  is  able  to  draw  around  him  a  class  of  men  who 
prefer  being  led  to  being  starved  ...  he  sets  up  that  he 
and  his  followers  are  superior  to  all  other  men.  .  .  .  Theirs 
is  the  crudest  kind  of  socialism.' 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  5 

him  as  sensual3  and  shrewd,  boastful  and  popular, 
conceited  and  kind-hearted.  If  these  descriptions 
are  objected  to  as  prejudiced,  there  remain  two  ac 
counts  which  the  Mormons  quote  with  approval. 
The  first  was  given  by  the  legal  counsel  of  the 
Saints  in  their  Missouri  troubles.  He  portrays 
Smith  as  of  unprepossessing  appearance,  ordinary 
conversational  powers,  and  limited  education,  and 
yet  withal  of  indomitable  perseverance,  strange  and 
striking  views  and  great  influence  over  others,  ene- 

3 '  Joseph  Smith  is  a  large,  stout  man,  youthful  in  his  appearance, 
with  light  complexion  and  hair,  and  blue  eyes  set  far  back  in  the 
head,  and  expressing  great  shrewdness,  or  I  should  say,  cunning. 
He  has  a  large  head  and  phrenologists  would  unhesitatingly  pro 
nounce  it  a  bad  one,  for  the  organs  situated  in  the  back  part  are 
decidedly  most  prominent.  He  is  also  very  round  shouldered.  He 
had  just  returned  from  Springfield,  where  he  had  been  upon  trial 
for  some  crime  of  which  he  was  accused  while  in  Missouri,  but  he 
was  released  by  habeas  corpus.  I,  who  had  expected  to  be  over 
whelmed  by  his  eloquence,  was  never  more  disappointed  than 
when  he  commenced  his  discourse  by  relating  all  the  incidents  of 
his  journey.  This  he  did  in  a  loud  voice,  and  his  language  and 
manner  were  the  coarsest  possible.  His  object  seemed  to  be  to 
amuse  and  excite  laughter  in  his  audience.  He  is  evidently  a 
great  egotist  and  boaster,  for  he  frequently  remarked  that  at 
every  place  he  stopped  going  to  and  from  Springfield  people 
crowded  around  him,  and  expressed  surprise  that  he  was  so 
"  handsome  and  good  looking."  He  also  exclaimed  at  the  close  of 
almost  every  sentence,  "  That's  the  idea !  "  .  .  .  They  say  he 
is  very  kind  hearted,  and  always  ready  to  give  shelter  and  help 
to  the  needy.' — Charlotte  Haven.  '  A  Girl's  Letters  from  Nauvoo,' 
January  22  and  February  13,  1843,  *n  the  Overland  Monthly  t 
December,  1890. 


6       THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

mies  and  followers  alike.4  Of  all  these  pen  portraits, 
the  latest  is  probably  the  most  impartial.  As  the 
church  historian  gives  it  only  in  part,5  it  is  need- 

«  P.  H.  Burnett,  '  Recollections  of  an  Old  Pioneer,'  1890,  p.  66  : — 
'Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  was  at  least  six  feet  high,  well  formed,  and 
weighed  about  180  pounds.  His  appearance  was  not  prepossessing 
and  his  conversational  powers  were  but  ordinary.  You  could  see  at  a 
glance  that  his  education  was  very  limited.  He  was  an  awkward 
but  vehement  speaker.  In  conversation  he  was  slow,  and  used 
too  many  words  to  express  his  ideas,  and  would  not  generally  go 
directly  to  a  point.  But,  with  all  these  drawbacks,  he  was  much 
more  than  an  ordinary  man.  He  possessed  the  most  indomitable 
perseverance,  was  a  good  judge  of  men,  and  deemed  himself 
born  to  command  and  he  did  command.  His  views  were  so 
strange  and  striking,  and  his  manner  was  so  earnest,  and  appar 
ently  so  candid,  that  you  could  not  but  be  interested.  ...  He 
had  the  capacity  for  discussing  a  subject  in  different  aspects,  and 
for  proposing  many  original  views,  even  of  ordinary  matters.  His 
illustrations  were  his  own.  He  had  great  influence  over  others. 
.  .  .  In  the  short  space  of  five  days  he  had  managed  so  to 
mollify  his  enemies  that  he  could  go  unprotected  among  them 
without  the  slightest  danger.' 

s Contrast  G.  Q.  Cannon,  'The  Life  of  Joseph  Smith  the 
Prophet,'  p.  355,  with  Quincy, '  Figures  of  the  Past,'  pp.  376-399 : — 
'  It  is  by  no  means  improbable  that  some  future  text-book,  for  the  use 
of  generations  yet  unborn,  will  contain  a  question  something  like 
this :  What  historical  American  of  the  nineteenth  century  has  exerted 
the  most  powerful  influence  upon  the  destinies  of  his  countrymen  ? 
And  it  is  by  no  means  impossible  that  the  answer  to  that  interrogatory 
may  be  thus  written  :  Joseph  Smith  the  Mormon  Prophet.  And  the 
reply,  absurd  as  it  doubtless  seems  to  most  men  now  living,  may  be 
an  obvious  commonplace  to  their  descendants.  History  deals  in  sur 
prises  and  paradoxes  quite  as  startling  as  this.  The  man  who  es 
tablished  a  religion  in  this  age  of  free  debate,  who  was  and  is  to-day 
accepted  by  hundreds  of  thousands  as  a  direct  emissary  from  the 
Most  High, — such  a  rare  human  being  is  not  to  be  disposed  of  by 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  7 

ful  to  sum  up  the  whole.  In  May,  1844,  forty- 
three  days  before  his  assassination,  Smith  was  vis 
ited  at  his  headquarters  by  Josiah  Quincy,  who  left 


pelting  his  memory  with  unsavory  epithets.  Fanatic,  impostor, 
charlatan,  he  may  have  been ;  but  these  hard  names  furnish  no  so 
lution  to  the  problem  he  presents  us.  ...  The  most  vital 
questions  Americans  are  asking  each  other  to-day  have  to  do  with 
this  man  and  what  he  has  left  us.' 


'  General  Smith  proceeded  to  unfold  still  further  his  views  upon 
politics.  He  denounced  the  Missouri'  Compromise  as  an  unjusti 
fiable  concession  for  the  benefit  of  slavery.  It  was  Henry  Clay's 
bid  for  the  presidency.  Dr.  Goforth  might  have  spared  himself 
the  trouble  of  coming  to  Nauvoo  to  electioneer  for  a  duellist  who 
would  fire  at  John  Randolph  but  was  not  brave  enough  to  protect 
the  Saints  in  their  rights  as  American  citizens.  Clay  had  told  his 
people  to  go  to  the  wilds  of  Oregon  and  set  up  a  government  of 
their  own.  Oh  yes,  the  Saints  might  go  into  the  wilderness  and 
obtain  justice  of  the  Indians,  which  imbecile,  time-serving  poli 
ticians  would  not  give  them  in  the  land  of  freedom  and  equality. 
The  prophet  then  talked  of  the  details  of  government.  He 
thought  that  the  number  of  members  admitted  to  the  Lower 
House  of  the  National  Legislature  should  be  reduced.  A  crowd 
only  darkened  counsel  and  impeded  business.  A  member  to  every 
half  million  of  population  would  be  ample.  The  powers  of  the 
President  should  be  increased.  He  should  have  authority  to  put 
down  rebellion  in  a  state  without  waiting  for  the  request  of  any 
governor;  for  it  might  happen  that  the  governor  himself  would  be 
the  leader  of  the  rebels.  It  is  needless  to  remark  how  later  events 
showed  the  executive  weakness  that  Smith  pointed  out, — a  weakness 
which  cost  thousands  of  valuable  lives  and  millions  of  treasure ; 
but  the  man  mingled  Utopian  fallacies  with  his  shrewd  suggestions. 
He  talked  as  from  a  strong  mind  utterly  unenlightened  by  the 
teachings  of  history.' 


8       THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

him  'a  phenomenon  to  be  explained.'  The  general 
was  described  as  '  a  man  of  commanding  appear 
ance;  capacity  and  resource  were  natural  to  his  stal 
wart  person;  and  left  an  impression  of  rugged 
power.'  But  there  were  not  only  high  lights  in  the 
picture.  Smith  gave  the  impression  of  kingly 
power,  but  his  talk  was  garnished  with  forcible 
vulgarisms;  he  had  a  statesmanlike  prevision  in  ad 
vocating  the  buying  of  slaves,  eleven  years  before 
Emerson  advocated  that  scheme,  but  with  it  all  be 
trayed  unexampled  absurdities  in  showing  off  his 
museum,  containing  Egyptian  mummies  and  the 
autograph  of  Moses.  'The  man,'  says  Quincy  in 
conclusion,  'mingled  Utopian  fallacies  with  his 
shrewd  suggestions.  He  talked  as  from  a  strong 
mind  utterly  unenlightened  by  the  teachings  of  his 
tory.' 

Personal  interviews  furnish  as  good  a  way  as  any 
to  get  at  a  solution  of  '  the  enigma  of  Palmyra.' 
Since  these  are  few  and  fragmentary,  recourse 
must  be  had  to  information  furnished  by  the 
prophet  under  his  own  name.  But,  again,  since 
Smith's  writings  have  all  the  defects  of  personal  in 
terviews  of  an  author  with  himself,  there  is  need 
of  considerable  reading  between  the  lines.  This  is 
fortunately  supplied  by  various  early  works,  which 
were  so  strongly  apologetic  that  they  were  ulti 
mately  suppressed.  For  example,  Smith's  Journal 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  9 

and  his  History*  are  supplemented  by  Thompson's 

e  Compare  H.  H.  Bancroft,  « History  of  Utah,'  p.  109: — 'The 
most  compjietejiistory  of  the  early  Mormon  church  is  the  Journal 
of  Joseph  Smith,  extracts  from  which  were  made  by  himself,  so  as 
to  form  a  consecutive  narrative,  under  title  of  History  of  Joseph 
Smith,  and  published  in  "  Times  and  Seasons  "  beginning  with  Vol. 
III.  No.  10,  March  15,  1842,  and  ending  February  15,  1846,  after 
the  prophet's  death.  The  narrative  would  fill  a  good-sized  I2mo 
volume.  It  is  composed  largely  of  revelations,  which,  save  in  the 
one  point  of  commandment  which  it  was  the  purpose  specially  to 
give,  are  all  quite  similar.  Publication  of  the  "  Times  and  Seasons  " 
was  begun  at  Commerce,  afterwards  called  Nauvoo,  Illinois, 
November,  1839,  and  issued  monthly.  The  number  for  May,  1840, 
was  dated  Nauvoo.  Later  it  was  published  semi-monthly,  and 
was  so  continued  till  February,  1846.  It  is  filled  with  church  pro 
ceedings,  movements  of  officers,  correspondence  of  missionaries, 
history,  and  general  information,  with  some  poetry.  .  .  .' 

'At  the  organization  of  this  church,  the  Lord  commanded 
Joseph  the  prophet  to  keep  a  record  of  his  doings  in  the  great  and 
important  work  that  he  was  commencing  to  perform.  It  thus  became 
a  duty  imperative.  After  John  Whitmer  and  others  had  purloined 
the  records  in  1838,  the  persecution  and  expulsion  from  Missouri 
soon  followed.  When  again  located,  now  in  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  and 
steamboat  loads  of  emigrants  were  arriving  from  England  via 
New  Orleans,  the  sound  thereof  awakened  an  interest  in  the  coun 
try  that  led  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  of  Chicago,  to  write  to  the 
prophet,  Joseph  Smith,  making  inquiries  about  the  rise,  progress, 
persecution,  and  faith  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  the  origin  of  this 
work,  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  the  plates  from  which  the  record  was 
translated,  etc. ;  and  it  is  the  answer  to  this  letter  contained  in 
"  Times  and  Seasons,"  March  I,  1842,  that  precedes  or  prefaces  the 
present  history  of  Joseph  Smith,  which  is  the  history  of  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints.  This  request  of  Mr.  Went- 
worth's  seemed  to  forcibly  remind  the  prophet  of  the  importance 
of  having  the  history  of  his  wonderful  work  restored  to  such  a 
condition  that  correct  information  could  be  given  to  editors, 
authors,  publishers,  and  any  or  all  classes  of  inquirers  that  might 


io      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Evidences1  and  Lucy  Smith's  Biographical  Sketches, 
the  latter  being  a  sort  of  homeopathic  antidote  to 
her  son's  unctuous  autobiography.8  So  much  for 
the  sources,  now  for  the  movement  and  the  man. 

apply,  and  he  undertook  with  his  clerks,  recorder,  and  all  avail 
able  aid  from  private  journals,  correspondence,  and  his  own  in 
delible  memory,  and  made  it  a  labor  to  get  his  own  history,  which 
was  indeed  that  of  the  church  in  all  the  stages  of  its  growth, 
while  he  remained  with  his  people,  compiled  and  written  up  to 
date,  which  with  his  own  current  journal  enabled  the  historian  to 
complete  the  history  to  the  time  of  his  assassination,  with  the 
utmost  fidelity  to  facts  as  they  occurred.  Our  method  of  verifica 
tion,  after  compilation  and  rough  draft,  was  to  read  the  same  be 
fore  a  session  of  the  council,  composed  of  the  First  Presidency  and 
Twelve  Apostles,  and  there  scan  everything  under  consideration.' 
Richards'  «  Bibliography  of  Utah,'  MS.,  2-6. 

7  Charles  Thompson,  '  Evidences  in  Proof  of  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon,'  p.  1 86.  «  Let  us  here  enumerate  all  the  accusations  against 
him :  "  a  money  digger,  a  fortune  teller,  intemperate,  a  profane 
swearer,  quarrelsome,  a  liar  and  a  deceiver."  ' 

s  The  History  of  Joseph  Smith,  as  given  in  the  « Times  and  Sea 
sons,'  3,  326-945,  is  conveniently  reprinted  in  the  « Pearl  of  Great 
Price.'  The  opening  paragraphs,  as  here  quoted,  are  followed  by 
the  accounts  of  the  three  Visions  [See  Chapter  II  Environment 
and  Visions]. 

'  Owing  to  the  many  reports  which  have  been  put  in  circulation 
by  evil  designing  persons  in  relation  to  the  rise  and  progress  of 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  all  of  which  have 
been  designed  by  the  authors  thereof  to  militate  against  its  char 
acter  as  a  Church,  and  its  progress  in  the  world,  I  have  been  in 
duced  to  write  this  history,  so  as  to  disabuse  the  public  mind,  and 
put  all  inquirers  after  truth  in  possession  of  the  facts  as  they  have 
transpired  in  relation  both  to  myself  and  the  Church  so  far  as  I 
have  such  facts  in  possession. 

In  this  history  I  will  present  the  various  events  in  relation  to 
this  Church,  in  truth  and  righteousness,  as  they  have  transpired,  or 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  11 

Mormonism  began  before  its  founder.  However 
strange  was  the  appearance  of  this  new  prophet, 
whose  'creed  was  singular  and  wives  plural,'  there 
were  preparatory  influences  back  of  him.  The 
cult  was  no  more  peculiar  than  its  causes.  It  was 
in  western  New  York  that  the  son  of  an  obscure 
farmer  gazed  in  his  magic  crystal,  automatically 
wrote  'a  transcription  of  gold  plates,'  dictated  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  and  after  strange  signs  and 
wonders,  started  his  communistic  sect.  The  move 
ment  arose  between  1820  and  1830;  its  impell 
ing  forces  began  two  generations  before.  Joseph 
Smith  dreamed  dreams,  saw  visions,  and  practiced 
healing  by  faith;  so  did  his  father,  his  mother  and 
his  maternal  grandfather.  It  is  with  the  latter  that 
the  investigation  properly  begins,  for  there  are  ex 
tant  hitherto  unused  materials  antedating  the 
Revolutionary  War.  About  1810,  Solomon  Mack,  a 


as  they  at  present  exist,  being  now  the  eighth  year  since  the  or 
ganization  of  the  said  Church. 

I  was  born  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  rive,  on  the  twenty-third  day  of  December,  in  the  town  of 
Sharon,  Windsor  County,  State  of  Vermont.  My  father,  Joseph 
Smith,  senior,  left  the  State  of  Vermont,  and  moved  to  Palmyra, 
Ontario  (now  Wayne)  County,  in  the  State  of  New  York,  when 
I  was  in  my  tenth  year.  In  about  four  years  after  my  father's 
arrival  at  Palmyra,  he  moved  with  his  family  into  Manchester,  in 
the  same  county  of  Ontario.  His  family  consisted  of  eleven  souls, 
namely :  my  father,  Joseph  Smith,  my  mother,  Lucy  Smith 
(whose  name  previous  to  her  marriage  was  Mack).  .  .  .' 


12      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

broken  down  old  soldier,  put  forth  a  pamphlet  with 
this  suggestive  title : — 

A  Narrative  of  the  Life  of  Solomon  Mack,  con 
taining  an  account  of  the  many  severe  accidents  he 
met  with  during  a  long  series  of  years,  together  with 
the  extraordinary  manner  in  which  he  was  con 
verted  to  the  Christian  Faith.  To  which  is  added 
a  number  of  Hymns,  composed  on  the  death  of 
several  of  his  relations.  Windsor :  Printed  at  the 
expense  of  the  author.9 

In  this  rare  Yankee  chap-book  there  earliest  ap 
pears  the  proneness  of  the  Smith  tribe  to  illusions  of 
the  mind.  These  are  described,  towards  the  close 
of  the  book,  with  an  air  of  simple  belief.  But  be 
fore  that  there  are  two-score  ill-spelt  pages,  which 
throw  a  flood  of  light  on  the  life  of  one  of  the  de 
pendent  classes  a  hundred  years  ago.  Yet  along 
with  its  quaint  fancies  and  pleasing  humors,  Mack's 
little  work  discloses  three  poor  traits  of  the  writer's 
descendants, — their  illiteracy,  their  restlessness  and 
their  credulity.  Lucy  Mack,  daughter  of  the  fighting 
beggar-man  and  mother  of  the  prophet,  in  her  own 
book  smoothed  the  style  and  corrected  the  gram 
matical  errors  of  the  Narrative.  Lest  the  raciness 
and  air  of  truth  be  left  out,  it  is  well  to  return  to 
the  original.  The  author  opens  with  a  quaint  ap- 

9  Of  the  two  reputed  copies,  the  one  in  the  Berrian  Collection, 
is  here  used. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  13 

peal  to  the  piety  of  his  hearers  and  recounts  the 
hardships  of  an  apprentice  bound  out  to  farm 
work: — 

'My  father  went  to  the  door  to  fetch  in  a 
back-log,  and  returned  after  a  fore-stick  and 
instantly  droped  down  dead  on  the  floor.  You 
may  see  by  this  our  lives  are  dependant  on  a 
sumpreme  and  independant  God.  .  .  .  My 
Master  was  very  careful  that  I  should  have  little 
or  no  rest.  From  labour  he  never  taught  me  to 
read  or  spoke  to  me  at  all  on  the  subject  of  re 
ligion.  .  .  .  My  mistress  was  afraid  of  my 
commencing  a  suit  against  them,  she  took  me 
aside  and  told  me  I  was  such  a  fool  we  could 
not  learn  you.  I  was  never  taught  even  the 
principles  of  common  morality,  and  felt  no  ob 
ligation  with  regard  to  society ;  and  was  born 
as  others,  like  the  wild  ass's  colt.  I  met  with 
many  sore  accidents  during  the  years  of  my 
minority. ' 10 

The  writer  next  gives  an  instance  of  his  practical 
cleverness,  but  adds  thereto  a  confession  of  his  lack 
of  book  learning.  Recounting  his  adventures  in 
the  French  and  Indian  war,  near  Fort  Edward  in 
1757,  he  says: 

'  I  espied  at  about  thirty  rods  distance,  four 

Indians   coming  out  of  the  wood  with  their 

tomma-hawks,    scalping   knives   and  guns.     I 

was  alone,  but  about  twenty  rods  behind  me 

10 « Narrative/  pp.  3,  4. 


14     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

there  was  a  man  by  the  name  of  Webster.  I 
saw  no  other  way  to  save  myself  only  to  de 
ceive  them  by  stratagem — I  exclaimed  like  this 
— Rush  on  !  rush  on !  Brave  Boys,  we'll 
have  the  Devils  !  We'll  have  the  Devils— \ 
had  no  other  weapon  only  a  staff;  but  I  ran 
towards  them  and  the  other  man  appearing  in 
sight,  gave  them  a  terrible  fright,  and  I  saw 
them  no  more  but  I  am  bound  to  say  the  grass 
did  not  grow  under  my  feet.' 
****** 
'In  the  spring,  1754,  I  set  out  on  another 
campaign.  I  went  to  Crown  Point,  and  there 
I  set  up  a  sutler's  shop  which  I  kept  two  years, 
by  means  of  a  clerk  I  employed  for  that  pur 
pose,  not  knowing  myself  how  to  write,  or  read, 
to  any  amount,  what  others  had  written  or 
printed.'11 

After  giving  the  author's  further  experiences  as  a 
backwoodsman  in  Connecticut,  an  artilleryman  in 
the  American  army,  a  sailor  from  Liverpool  to 
Mount  Desert  and  a  privateersman  in  Long  Island 
Sound,  the  Narrative  is  taken  up  with  an  Iliad  of 
woes,  a  list  of  sufferings  and  accidents  doubtless 
lengthened  out  to  create  sympathy  and  make  the 
little  book  sell.  In  Mack's  catalogue  of  fever  sores, 
smallpox,  and  broken  bones  there  is  little  of  really 
vital  interest,  until  mention  is  made  of  falling  fits. 

11  <  Narrative,'  pp.  5, 9.  Table  of  Errata  in  Appendix  makes  the 
date  1754  to  be  1759. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  15 

X 
These    are    causally  connected  with   the    seizures 

which  afflicted  his  descendant  sixty  years  later. 
The  case  reads  like  epilepsy;  at  any  rate,  thus  early 
appear  those  symptoms,  which  go  far  to  explain 
the  '  visions  and  revelations '  and  other  abnormalities 
of  grandfather  and  grandson  alike.  But  to  resume 
the  story  at  a  later  point:  With  his  bodily  suffer 
ings  in  old  age,  Solomon's  religious  experiences  be 
gin  and  there  are  blended  with  these  certain  char 
acteristic  mental  hallucinations;  the  narrator  con 
tinues: — 

'  In  the  ;6th  year  of  my  age,  I  was  taken  with 
the  Rheumatism  and  confined  me  all  winter  in 
the  most  extreme  pain  for  most  of  the  time.  I 
under  affliction  and  dispensation  of  providence, 
at  length  began  to  consider  my  ways,  and  found 
myself  destitute  of  knowledge  to  extole  me  to 
enquire.  My  mind  was  imagining,  but  agi 
tated.  I  imagined  many  things ;  it  seemed  to 
me  that  I  saw  a  bright  light  in  a  dark  night, 
when  contemplating  on  my  bed  which  I  could 
not  account  for,  but  I  thought  I  heard  a  voice 
calling  to  me  again.  I  thought  I  saw  another 
light  of  the  same  kind,  all  which  I  considered 
as  ominous  of  my  own  dissolution.  I  was  in 
distress  that  sleep  departed  from  my  eyes  and  I 
literally  watered  my  pillow  with  tears  that  I 
prayed  eagerly  that  God  would  have  mercy  on 
me.' 12 

18  <  Narrative,'  p.  19. 


16     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Psychologically  these  phenomena  will  demand 
closer  scrutiny,  historically  they  are  by  no  means 
unique.  From  the  bishop  of  Hippo  to  Jonathan 
Edwards,  such  visions  and  voices  have  had  mystic 
interpretation.13  The  fantasies  of  the  simple  minded 
Revolutionary  soldier  may  be  connected  with  the 
past,  their  real  significance  lies  with  a  coming  gen 
eration.  To  the  grandfather  these  impressions  are 
vague,  inchoate  and  hard  to  explain;  to  the  grand 
son  they  are  clear  manifestations  with  a  definite 
purpose, — they  are  messages  of  the  angel  Nephi  an 
nouncing  the  Mormon  dispensation. 

The  last  pages  of  the  Narrative  are  of  interest  as 
disclosing  an  almost  medieval  way  of  looking  at 
peculiar  mental  experiences.  This  New  Englander 
of  the  eighteenth  century  felt  and  thought  like  the 
English  Puritan  of  the  sixteenth.  Mack's  confession, 
for  example,  intimately  resembles  Bunyan's  Grace 
Abounding  to  the  Chief  of  Sinners.  There  bodily 
ailments  are  followed  by  mental  apparitions,  but  the 
two  are  scarce  conjoined;  it  did  not  occur  to  the 
inspired  tinker,  that  his  physical  hardships  on 
Hounslow  Heath  were  a  cause  of  his  imaginary 
fights  with  Apollyon  in  Bedford  Gaol.  So  is  it 
here, — the  physical  cause  is  stated,  but  the  religious 
interpretation  is  predominant: — 

i»  Compare  « Revue  Philosophique,'  44,  636, — H.  Joly, « Psycho 
logic  des  Saints.' 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  17 

'  Another  night  soon  after  I  saw  another  light 
as  bright  as  the  first,  at  a  small  distance  from 
my  face,  and  I  thought  I  had  but  a  few 
moments  to  live,  and  not  sleeping  nights,  and 
reading,  all  day  I  was  in  misery ;  well  you  may 
think  I  was  in  distress,  soul  and  body.  At  an 
other  time,  in  the  dead  of  the  night  I  was  called 
by  my  Christian  name,  I  arise  up  to  answer  to 
my  name.  The  doors  all  being  shut  and  the 
house  still,  I  thought  the  Lord  called  and  I  had 
but  a  moment  to  live.  ...  I  have  often 
thought  that  the  lights  which  I  saw  were  to 
show  me  what  a  situation  I  was  in.  ... 
The  calls,  I  believe,  were  for  me  to  return  to  the 

Lord  who  would  have  mercy  on  me. '  u 

J 

It  is  this  referring  of  everything  unnatural  to  the 
supernatural  that  continued  as  a  mark  of  Joseph's 
family  during  three  generations;  dreams  are  warn 
ings,  visions  are  messages  from  on  high.  Even 
more  characteristic  is  the  belief  in  healing  by  prayer. 
The  prophet  constantly  practiced  this  on  his  fol 
lowers;  his  mother  gave  several  instances;  while 
his  grandfather  cited  his  own  case  at  the  end  of  his 
life:— 

*  All  the  winter  I  was  laid  up  with  the  rheu 
matism.  ...  I  thought  like  this  as  I  was 
setting  one  evening  by  the  fire,  I  prayed  to  the 
Lord,  if  he  was  with  me  that  I  might  know  it  by 
this  token — that  my  pains  might  all  be  eased 
14 '  Narrative/  p.  22. 


1 8     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

for  that  night ;  and  blessed  be  the  Lord,  I  was 
entirely  free  from  pain  that  night. ' l5 

There  remains  one  more  incident  which  clearly 
displays  the  heights  to  which  a  persistent  credulity 
may  go,  for  the  tale  is  repeated  by  Joseph  Smith's 
mother.  The  old  man  gives  in  his  appendix  the 
following  curious  story: — 

'  Quite  a  mericle  of  my  daughter  in  the  town  of  Sun- 
derland  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  the  wife  of  Joseph 
Tuttle.  She  was  sick  about  one  year.  .  .  .  For 
three  days  she  eat  only  the  yolk  of  one  egg — she  was  an 
anatomy  to  appearance.  Her  friends  were  often  weeping 
around  her  bed  expecting  every  moment  to  be  her  last. 

The  day  before  her  recovery,  the  doctor  said  it  was  as 
much  impossible  to  raise  her,  as  it  would  one  from  the 
dead.  The  night  following  she  dreamed  a  dream;  it 
was  that  a  sort  of  wine  would  cure  her ;  it  was  imme 
diately  brought  to  her,  and  she  drank  it.  The  next 
morning  she  awoke  and  called  to  her  husband  to  get  up 
and  make  a  fire — he  arose  immediately,  but  thought  she 
was  out  of  her  head ;  but  soon  he  found  to  the  contrary ; 
quickly  she  arose  up  on  end  in  the  bed  (said  the  Lord  has 
helped  body  and  soul)  and  dressed  herself.  .  .  . 
Soon  after  the  same  morning  she  went  to  the  house 
of  her  father-in-law,  (which  was  about  ten  rods)  and  back 
again  on  her  feet  her  eyes  and  countenance  appeared 
lively  and  bright  as  ever  it  was  in  her  past  life. ' 16 

»* « Narrative/  p.  12. 

w « Narrative,'  pp.  42,  43. — A  psychological  explanation  of  this  in 
cident  would  puzzle  a  member  of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research. 
It  might  be  labelled  a  symptomatic  dream,  such  as  when  the  somn- 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  19 

The  study  of  the  Mormon  leader's  ancestry  is 
more  than  a  study  in  atavism:  nature  has  not 
skipped  a  generation.  The  erratic  tendencies  in 
Joseph's  mind  appear  constitutional  because  they 
are  continuous.  His  mother  acknowledges  as  much 
in  her  Biographical  Sketches  "  of  her  son,  which,  at 

ambulist,  or  the  deep  sleeper,  is  alleged  to  diagnose  the  disease 
and  to  prescribe  the  remedy.  This  theory  is  based  on  the  fanciful 
induction  that,  inasmuch  as  states  of  the  internal  organs  are  prevo- 
catives  of  dreams,  the  dream-desires  have  value  as  curative  in 
stincts.  But  over  against  this  theory  is  the  fact,  that,  even  in  the 
waking  condition,  there  is  but  a  vague  consciousness  of  the  seat  of 
organic  sensations.  The  incident,  nevertheless,  has  value.  It 
throws  light  on  the  mental  development  of  both  Solomon  and  his 
daughter,  for  reliance  on  the  health-prescriptions  of  dreamers  was  a 
superstition  of  the  middle  ages. — Compare  Du  Prel,  '  The  Philos 
ophy  of  Mysticism,'  Volume  I,  Chapter  5  « Dream  a  Physician.' 
Contrast  Sully,  in  Encyclopaedia  Brittannica,  7,  459. 

n  The  full  title  reads :  •  Biographical  Sketches  of  Joseph  Smith 
the  Prophet,  and  his  Progenitors  for  many  generations?  The 
book's  authenticity  is  undeniable.  Published  in  Liverpool  in  1853 
for  Orson  Pratt,  it  was  put  forth  with  a  flourish  of  approbation  and 
publicly  commended  in  the  official  foreign  organ  of  the  Mormons. 
The  Millennial  Star,  XV.  169,  682,  gives  these  two  notices  :  «  The 
manuscripts  containing  this  information,  with  the  exception  of  the 
portion  relating  to  his  martyrdom,  were  written  by  the  direction  and 
under  the  inspection  of  the  prophet.  .  .  .  Being  written  by  Lucy 
Smith,  the  mother  of  the  prophet,  and  mostly  under  his  inspection, 
will  be  ample  guarantee  of  the  authenticity  of  the  narrative.' 

Orson  Pratt's  preface  to  the  book  begins  : — « The  following  pages 
.  .  .  were  mostly  written  previous  to  the  death  of  the  prophet, 
and  under  his  personal  inspection.  Most  of  the  historical  items 
and  occurrences  related  have  never  before  been  published.  They 
will  therefore  be  exceedingly  interesting  to  all  Saints,  and  sincere 
inquirers  after  the  truth.' 


20     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

first,  had  a  wide  circulation  as  '  Mother  Smith's 
History,'  but  has  since  been  discredited  by  the 
Utah  Mormons,  for  it  tells  too  plain  a  story.18  From 
this  now  scarce  work,  Joseph's  mental  outfit  is  seen 
to  be  largely  a  matter  of  inheritance.  In  his  ma 
ternal  grandfather  there  is  disclosed  an  unthinking 
credulity,  in  his  mother  a  positive  hankering  after 
the  supernatural.  She  notes  with  relish  every  detail 
of  her  husband's  seven  dreams,  as  well  as  all  the 
omens,  visions  and  faith  cures  of  her  seven  brothers 
and  sisters.  This  book  is  all  important  as  a  source, 
yet  a  question  of  historic  validity  arises.  If  it  was 
written  'under  the  inspection  of  the  prophet,'  may 
not  its  facts  have  been  garbled  ?  It  was  the  practice 
of  Joseph,  as  head  of  his  church,  to  work  over  and 
amend  his  earlier  writings;  such  are  the  gram 
matical  corrections  in  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  the 
doctrinal  changes  in  the  Book  of  Commandments. 
The  doubt  as  to  validity  is  legitimate,  but  the  solu 
tion  is  at  hand.  In  these  Biographical  Sketches  there 
are  published  'historical  items  and  occurrences' — of 
such  a  kind  that  Joseph  the  wonder-seeker  did  not 
want  them  changed.  The  book  teems  with  dreams, 
visions  and  miraculous  cures.  These  were,  in 
truth,  'events  of  infinite  importance'  to  one  who 
was  not  wont  to  distinguish  between  subjective 
illusions  and  objective  realities. 

»SA.  T.  Schroeder,  'The  Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,'  p.  55. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  21 

If,  then,  the  book  has  not  been  seriously  tampered 
with,  because  its  subject-matter  exactly  suited  the 
mind  of  the  prophet,  some  plain  facts  about  this 
'  remarkable  family  '  may  be  extracted  from  it.  To 
begin  with,  the  education  of  Lucy  Mack  was  of  the 
most  meagre  sort.19 

Closely  related  to  the  partial  illiteracy  of  the 
mother  is  her  entire  credulity.  She  too  believes  in 
miraculous  recovery,  and  in  dreams  as  heavenly  ad 
monitions.  Her  version  of  her  sister's  unexpected 
upraising  is  more  sensational  than  the  parallel  ac 
count  of  Solomon.  Mrs.  Tuttle  being  bedridden  for 
two  years,  suddenly  exclaims :  '  The  Lord  has  healed 
me,  both  soul  and  body — raise  me  up  and  give  me 
my  clothes.  I  wish  to  get  up.  Connected  with  this 
recovery  is  the  inevitable  vision.  The  patient  gives 
the  recital  of  the  strange  circumstance  in  the  crowded 
church,  and  addresses  the  audience  as  follows :  '  I 
seemed  to  be  borne  away  to  the  world  of  spirits, 
where  I  saw  the  Saviour,  as  through  a  veil,  which 
appeared  to  me  about  as  thick  as  a  spider's  web, 

19 « The  Narrative '  of  her  father  discloses  this.  •  In  1761,'  Solomon 
Mack  is  made  to  say,  '  we  moved  to  the  town  of  Marlow.  When 
we  moved  there,  it  was  no  other  than  a  desolate  and  dreary  wilder 
ness.  Only  four  families  resided  within  forty  miles.  Here  I  was 
thrown  into  a  situation  to  appreciate  more  fully  the  talents  and  vir 
tues  of  my  excellent  wife ;  for,  as  our  children  were  deprived  of 
schools,  she  assumed  the  charge  of  their  education,  and  performed 
the  duties  of  an  instructress.' 


22     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

and  he  told  me  that  I  must  return  again  to  warn  the 
people  to  prepare  for  death  .  .  .  that  if  I  would 
do  this  my  life  would  be  prolonged.' 20 

It  was  on  these  fables  of  the  family  and  tales  of 
a  grandfather  that  the  incipient  prophet  was  fed.21 
But  this  is  only  a  beginning  of  the  signs  and  won 
ders  among  Joseph's  people.  His  mother  also  hears 
a  supernal  voice  and  has  a  miraculous  recovery. 
Sick  of  a  hectic  fever  and  meditating  upon  death, 
she  heard  a  voice  saying:  'Let  your  heart  be  com 
forted.'  From  that  time,  she  asserts,  she  became 
quite  well  as  to  bodily  health,  but  her  mind  was 
considerably  disquieted.  It  was  naturally  in  this 
period,  when  there  was  only  a  'faint  glimmer  of 
light  beyond  the  gloom,'  that  the  author's  most 
notable  psychic  experience  took  place.  A  condensed 
extract  will  give  the  spirit  of  the  dream : — 

'  While  we  were  living  at  Tunbridge,  my  mind 
became  deeply  impressed  with  the  subject  of  re 
ligion.  I  began  to  attend  Methodist  meetings 
and,  to  oblige  me,  my  husband  accompanied 
me ;  but  when  this  came  to  the  ears  of  his  father 
and  eldest  brother  they  were  displeased.  I 
was  considerably  hurt  by  this ;  after  praying 
some  time  I  fell  asleep  and  had  the  following 
dream : 

*> «  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  25,  26,  47. 

21  Compare  '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  108.  In  1827  Joseph 
takes  a  « hint  from  the  stratagem  of  his  Grandfather  Mack.' 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  23 

I  thought  that  I  stood  in  a  large  and  beauti 
ful  meadow ;  a  pure  and  clear  stream  of  water 
ran  through  the  midst  of  it.  I  discovered  two 
trees  standing  upon  its  margin.  I  gazed  upon 
them  with  wonder  and  admiration  and  I  saw 
that  one  of  them  was  surrounded  with  a  bright 
belt  that  shone  like  burnished  gold.  Presently, 
a  gentle  breeze  passed  by,  and  the  tree  encircled 
with  this  golden  zone,  bent  gracefully  before 
the  wind.  I  turned  my  eyes  upon  its  fellow, 
which  stood  opposite;  but  it  was  not  sur 
rounded  with  the  belt  of  light  as  the  former, 
and  it  stood  erect  and  fixed  as  a  pillar  of  mar 
ble.  I  wondered  at  what  I  saw,  and  said  in  my 
heart,  What  can  be  the  meaning  of  all  this? 
And  the  interpretation  given  me  was,  that  these 
personated  my  husband  and  his  oldest  brother, 
Jesse  Smith ;  that  the  stubborn  and  unyielding 
tree  was  like  Jesse  ;  that  the  other,  more  pliant 
and  flexible,  was  like  Joseph  my  husband ;  that 
the  breath  of  heaven,  which  passed  over  them, 
was  the  pure  and  undefiled  Gospel,  which  Gos 
pel  Jesse  would  always  resist,  but  which  Joseph, 
when  he  was  more  advanced  in  life  would  hear 
and  receive.' 2a 

Already  there  is  disclosed  a  threefold  resemblance 
between  Lucy  Mack  and  her  father:  each  heard 
voices,  saw  visions  and  believed  in  miraculous  cures. 
And  there  is  another  element  which  was  transmitted 
to  the  daughter.  Solomon  has  his  religious  doubts, 

881  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  56,  57. 


24     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

but  they  are  of  a  simple  and  personal  kind;  Lucy  is 
afflicted  with  a  more  complex  depression  of  spirits." 
This  melancholia,  allied  with  a  positive  intolerance 
of  the  sects,  was  destined  to  exert  an  important  in 
fluence  on  the  young  son's  mind.  In  the  case  of 
the  mother,  at  any  rate,  it  led  to  a  marked  aloof 
ness  from  denominationalism.  A  Methodist  ex- 
horter  and  a  Presbyterian  minister  both  attempted 
to  gain  her  adherence,  but  she  maintained  her 
religious  independence  throughout.  'At  length  I 
considered  it  my  duty  to  be  baptized,  and,  finding 
a  minister  who  was  willing  to  baptize  me,  and 
leave  me  free  in  regard  to  joining  any  religious 
denomination,  I  stepped  forward  and  yielded  obe 
dience  to  this  ordinance;  after  which  I  continued  to 

29  Again  while  at  Tunbridge,  Vt.,  she  writes  :  '  The  grief  occas 
ioned  by  the  death  of  Lovina  was  preying  upon  my  health  .  .  . 
I  was  pensive  and  melancholy,  and  often  in  my  reflections  I  thought 
that  life  was  not  worth  possessing.  In  the  midst  of  this  anxiety  of 
mind,  I  determined  to  obtain  that  which  I  had  heard  spoken  of  so 
much  from  the  pulpit — a  change  of  heart.  To  accomplish  this,  I 
spent  much  of  my  time  in  reading  the  Bible,  and  praying ;  but, 
notwithstanding  my  great  anxiety  to  experience  a  change  of  heart, 
another  matter  would  always  interpose  in  all  my  meditations — If  I 
remain  a  member  of  no  church,  all  religious  people  will  say  I  am 
of  the  world ;  and  if  I  join  some  one  of  the  different  denomina 
tions,  all  the  rest  will  say  I  am  in  error.  No  church  will  admit 
that  I  am  right,  except  the  one  with  which  I  am  associated.  This 
makes  them  witnesses  against  each  other;  and  how  can  I  decide 
in  such  a  case  as  this,  seeing  they  are  all  unlike  the  Church  of 
Christ  as  it  existed  in  former  days ! ' — «  Biographical  Sketches,' 
p.  27. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  25 

read  the  Bible  as  formerly,  until  my  eldest  son  had 
attained  his  twenty-second  year.'24 

The  book  now  takes  up  the  pedigree  of  Joseph, 
senior,  whose  ancestors  originally  came  from  Eng 
land.  His  line  is  traced  back  through  seven  genera 
tions  to  first  Samuel  Smith,  born  1666  in  Essex 
County,  Massachusetts.  The  education  of  the  hus 
band  was  not  so  defective  as  that  of  his  wife,  since 
at  one  time  he  eked  out  his  living  by  teaching  school. 
How  much  knowledge  this  would  imply  is  conjec 
tural.  The  course  of  study  in  a  Vermont  district 
school  at  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  did  not 
consist  of  much  more  than  reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic.25  At  any  rate  with  this  equipment  of 
the  three  R's,  Joseph's  father  as  Patriarch  of  the 
Mormon  Church  in  the  Middle  West,  was  author 
ized  to  dispense  written  blessings  to  the  Saints  at 
a  moderate  tariff.  If  Joseph,  senior,  was,  strictly, 
not  illiterate,  he  still  resembled  his  father-in-law 
in  his  restless  habits.  His  occupations  were  varied, 
even  for  a  Connecticut  Yankee.  He  first  owns  a 
farm  at  Tunbridge,  Vermont;  he  then  moves  to 
Royalton  and  then  to  Randolph  and  keeps  a  store. 
In  the  meanwhile  he  hunts  for  'gensang'  root  for 

**  •  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  48,  49. 

«•  Z.  Thompson,  '  History  of  Vermont,'  p.  212.  •  The  founders  of 
Vermont  were  able  to  read,  write  and  compute,  but  few  were 
versed  in  the  rules  of  grammar.' 


26     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

the  China  trade.  He  next  rents  a  farm  in  Sharon, 
Windsor  County,  Vermont,  but  soon  moves  to 
Lebanon,  New  Hampshire;  after  that  he  migrates  to 
Norwich,  where  his  crops  fail;  and  finally,  when 
the  boy  Joseph  was  eleven  years  old,  he  takes  up  a 
land  claim  at  Palmyra,  Seneca  County,  New  York. 
About  this  time  he  is  described,  by  an  eyewitness, 
as  of  gaunt  and  haggard  visage,  with  the  rusty 
clothes  of  a  vagabond.26 

During  these  years  of  wandering  Joseph,  senior, 
was  visited  with  a  panorama  of  visions.  They 
started  about  the  year  1811,  and  were  completed 
only  with  the  mystic  number  of  seven.  The  first  two 
must  be  examined  later,  for  the  vision  of  the  Magic 
Box  gives  the  clue  for  the  young  prophet's  discovery 
of  the  Golden  Plates,  and  the  vision  of  the  Fruit  Tree 
is  substantially  reproduced  in  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

Two  things  are  noticeable  in  the  whole  series: 
first,  that  they  arose  in  times  of  mental  agitation, 
and,  second,  that  the  stuff  the  dreams  were  made 
of  was  largely  derived  from  every-day  waking  ex 
perience.  On  the  one  hand  the  phantasms  be 
gan,  when  the  dreamer's  mind  'was  much  excited 
upon  the  subject  of  religion.'27  On  the  other 

2«  Editorial  in  Norwich,  N.  Y.  Union,  April  28,  1877,  by  W.  D. 
Purple,  who  took  notes  at  the  trial  of  Joseph  Smith,  senior,  on  a 
charge  of  vagrancy  before  Justice  of  Peace  Albert  Neeley. 

««  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  56. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  27 

hand,  the  details  are  commonplace;  the  language 
is  scriptural,  but  the  color  is  local.  For  example, 
besides  the  vision  of  the  Meeting  House,  there 
is  that  of  the  Magic  Box,  which  is  discovered  in 
a  wilderness  of  'dead  fallen  timber';  and  of  the 
Fruit  Tree  which  spread  its  branches  '  like  an  um 
brella,'  and  '  bore  a  kind  of  fruit  in  shape  much  like 
a  chestnut  burr.'  The  third  vision  is  that  of  the 
Twelve  Images  which  bow  in  deference  to  the  father 
of  the  coming  prophet,  like  the  sheaves  of  Joseph's 
brethren  of  old.  Here  the  dreamer  enters  a  flower 
garden  with  '  walks  about  three  and  one-half  feet 
wide,  which  were  set  on  both  sides  with  marble 
stones.'28  In  the  sixth  vision  there  is  more  than  a 
reproduction  of  the  ordinary  sights  of  a  new  New 
England  village  and  more  than  a  repetition  of  an 
Old  Testament  story.  The  conflict  between  the 
claims  of  Mercy  and  Justice  is  an  echo  of  the  theol 
ogy  of  the  day,  an  effort  of  the  sleeper's  mind  to 
harmonize  a  nightmare  with  a  doctrine  of  Calvin 
ism.  This  dream  is  worth  quoting  at  length : — 

'  I  thought  I  was  walking  alone ;  I  was  much 
fatigued,  nevertheless  I  continued  travelling.  It 
seemed  to  me  that  I  was  going  to  meeting,  that 
it  was  the  day  of  judgment,  and  that  I  was 
going  to  be  judged.  When  I  came  in  sight  of 
the  meeting  house,  I  saw  multitudes  of  people 

88 '  Biographical  Sketches/  p.  71. 


28      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

coming  from  every  direction,  and  pressing  with 
great  anxiety  toward  the  door  of  this  great 
building ;  but  I  thought  I  should  get  there  in 
time,  hence  there  was  no  need  of  being  in  a 
hurry.  But,  on  arriving  at  the  door,  I  found  it 
shut;  I  knocked  for  admission,  and  was  in 
formed  by  the  porter  that  I  had  come  too  late. 
I  felt  exceedingly  troubled,  and  prayed  ear 
nestly  for  admittance.  Presently  I  found  that  my 
flesh  was  perishing.  I  continued  to  pray,  still 
my  flesh  withered  upon  my  bones.  I  was  al 
most  in  a  state  of  total  despair,  when  the  porter 
asked  me  if  I  had  done  all  that  was  necessary 
in  order  to  receive  admission.  I  replied,  that  I 
had  done  all  that  was  in  my  power  to  do. 
"  Then,"  observed  the  porter,  "justice  must  be 
satisfied ;  after  this,  mercy  hath  her  claims."  ' 29 

Examining  the  next  dream  critically,  it  is  clear 
that  the  higher  mental  activity  of  conception,  not 
of  mere  reproduction,  has  a  beginning  but  is  not 
carried  out.  Evidently  some  involuntary  muscular 
movement  of  the  sleeper's  body  was  made  and  the 
train  of  thought  was  interrupted.  Says  Joseph, 
senior: — 

*  I  dreamed  that  a  man  with  a  pedlar's  budget 
on  his  back,  came  in,  and  thus  addressed  me : 
"Sir,  will  you  trade  with  me  to-day?  I  have 
now  called  upon  you  seven  times,  I  have  traded 
with  you  each  time,  and  have  always  found  you 
»9 «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  72. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  29 

strictly  honest  in  all  your  dealings.  Your 
measures  are  always  heaped,  and  your  weights 
overbalance  ;  and  I  have  now  come  to  tell  you 
that  this  is  the  last  time  I  shall  ever  call  on 
you,  and  that  there  is  but  one  thing  that  you  lack, 
in  order  to  secure  your  salvation."  As  I  ear 
nestly  desired  to  know  what  it  was  that  I  still 
lacked,  I  requested  him  to  write  the  same  upon 
paper.  He  said  he  would  do  so.  I  then 
sprang  to  get  some  paper,  but,  in  my  excite 
ment,  I  awoke.'30 

This  seventh  and  last  vision  was  'received'  in 
1819,  but  the  family  habit  was  not  interrupted.  In 
the  following  year  Joseph,  junior,  began  his  opera 
tions,  and  in  twenty-three  years  was  vouchsafed 
those  four  hundred  octavo  pages  of  'revelations,' 
found  in  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants  and  the  Pearl 
of  Great  Price. 

As  has  been  suggested,  the  dreams  of  the  elder 
Smith  have  evidently  undergone  a  process  of  redac 
tion;  the  smooth  and  unctuous  style  points  to  the 
corrective  hand  of  Joseph.  For  all  that,  their  gen 
eral  validity  may  be  accepted; — as  they  are  re 
corded,  so  they  happened.  They  could  scarcely 
have  been  made  out  of  whole  cloth  by  the  prophet 
in  his  later  days  of  deception,  for  the  Vision  of  the 
Fruit  Tree  was  incorporated  into  the  first  edition  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon.  To  accuse  Joseph  of  making 

80 *  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  74. 


30     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

up  this  vision  and  that  of  the  Magic  Box  at  the  age  of 
twenty-five,  is  to  make  him  a  juvenile  forger  rather 
than  an  unwitting  plagiarist.  As  the  case  stands, 
it  is  damaging  enough  to  the  Saints,  instead  of  be 
ing  '  a  divinely  inspired  record  written  by  the  fore 
fathers  whom  we  call  Indians,' 31  the  Book  of  Mormon 
is  disclosed  as  a  home-made  product  of  infant  in 
dustry.  Of  the  authenticity  of  the  dreams,32  whether 
in  or  out  of  the  Record,  there  is  abundant  evidence, 
— those  commonplace  and  homely  details  which 
crop  out  from  amid  the  flowery  language.  But  as 
regards  inward  significance  they  reflect  the  ideas 
and  opinions  of  the  persons  concerned.  They  first 
tell  how  the  Smith  tribe  interpreted  their  thoughts 
of  the  night.33  From  the  comparative  ethnic  point 
of  view  their  theory  was  an  intermediate  one: S4  they 
did  not,  like  primitive  man,  look  on  nocturnal  ex 
periences  as  of  equal  reality  with  those  of  the  day; 

31  Charles  Thompson,  •  Evidences  in  proof  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,' 
1841,  p.  192.  Compare  James  E.  Talmage,  «  Divinity  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon,'  Salt  Lake  City,  1901. 

»  A  negative  proof  of  authenticity  is  found  in  Lucy's  statement, 
p.  72,  regarding  her  husband  that  '  He  received  two  more  visions, 
which  would  probably  be  somewhat  interesting,  but  I  cannot  re 
member  them  distinctly  enough  to  rehearse  them  in  full.' 

33  For  the  principles  here  applied  consult  James  Sully, '  Illusions,' 
New  York,  1897 ;  and  his  article  on  Dream  in  the  Encyclopaedia 
Brittannica,  9th  edition ;  also  Carl  Du  Prel, «  Philosophy  of  Mysti 
cism,1  Volume  I,  Chapter  2. 

*«  Compare  Herbert  Spencer,  '  Principles  of  Sociology,'  New 
York,  1892,  Volume  I,  Chapter  10. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  31 

much  less  did  they  give  them  a  material  and  phys 
ical  explanation.  Theirs  was  the  mystic  view: 
dreams  are  warnings  from  on  high,  visions  are 
symbolic  messages  sent  to  guide  the  soul.  Three 
stages  in  the  conception  of  dreams  are  exemplified 
in  the  history  of  Joseph  and  his  progenitors:  first, 
personification, — to  Joseph  the  deity  sends  a  mes 
senger  or  angel  of  radiant  form;  second,  communi 
cation, — to  Solomon  Mack  the  divine  message  is 
heard  by  the  dreamer,  not  by  means  of  a  material 
figure,  but  as  an  external  voice;  third,  objectivation, 
—to  Lucy  and  her  spouse  a  symbolic  picture  is 
unrolled,  with  or  without  interpretation. 

Inasmuch  as  the  Smiths  insisted  on  the  super- 
naturalness  of  their  dreams,  it  remains  to  give  their 
natural  conditions  and  causes.  A  difficulty  arises  at 
the  start:  if  the  physiological  explanation  is  at 
tempted,  the  data  are  either  entirely  lacking,  or  are 
wanting  in  exactness.  Mother  Smith's  work  is  meant 
to  be  a  faith-promoting  handbook;  and  she)j  wells 
with  delight  on  supernatural  remedies  and  rniracu- 
lous  cures.  When  she  does  go  in  for  morbid  anat 
omy,  the  ailments  and  diseases  are  given  obsolete 
and  indeterminate  names.35  In  one  place,  however, 

38  Lucy's  own  comforting  dream  fits  in  with  her  hectic  fever,  but 
the  typhus  which  afflicted  her  offspring  was  probably  typhoid.  Ref 
erences  to  the  epidemics  of  influenza,  typhus,  etc.,  in  Vermont,  during 
the  first  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  are  of  no  avail,  for  Lucy 
herself  generally  neglects  to  give  the  date  of  the  sicknesses  which  so 


32      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

nervous  depression  is  given  as  a  precondition  of  a 
dream.  Immediately  before  her  vision  of  the  Two 
Trees,  Lucy  states  that  she  had  attended  a  Metho 
dist  meeting,  when  'she  returned  to  the  house, 
much  depressed  in  spirit,  which  state  of  feeling 
continued  until  I  retired  to  my  bed.'38 

Turning  to  the  psychic  correlations,  a  tentative 
use  may  now  be  made  of  the  two  ordinary  forms 
of  dreams,  namely: — the  illusion,  or  imitation  of  a 
sense  perception,  and  the  hallucination,  or  projec 
tion  of  a  mental  image  outwardly.  The  latter  is 
exemplified  in  Solomon  Mack,  when  he  saw  a 
bright  object  at  a  small  distance  from  his  face.  To 
him  this  seemed  an  extra-mental  reality;  to  the 
physiologist  the  apparent  patch  of  flame  is  due  to 
changes  of  blood  pressure  on  the  eye-ball.  The 
brightness  and  apparent  nearness  of  the  light  would 
appear  to  uphold  the  theory  that,  if  the  nerve  ex 
citation  arises  in  the  organ  of  sight,  the  structure  of 
the  retina  is  reproduced  perceptibly.37  Although  it 
is  contended  that  the  psychologist  has  nothing 
whatever  to  do  with  the  physiology  of  the 

;   •  *J*  fif 

often  preceded  the  visions.  Moreover  the  local  historian  talks  like 
a  horse  doctor.  Compare  Z.  >mpson,  '  History  of  Vermont,' 
1842,  p.  221 :  «  1800,  Typhus  prevalent.  1802-3,  Canker  rash  or 
throat  distemper.  1807,  Influenza  in  Vermont  and  throughout  the 
United  States.' 

» •  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  54. 

37  DU  Prel,  p.  203 :  Schemer's  theory. 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  33 

retina,38  yet  this  experience  of  Mack's  fulfils  three  out 
of  the  five  general  causes  of  hallucination  given  by 
the  physiologist.  There  was  no  specific  statement  as 
to  local  diseases  of  the  organ  of  sense,  nor  to  drugs, 
but  there  was  exhaustion  of  body  and  mind,  a 
morbid  emotional  state  of  fear  and  outward  calm 
and  stillness.39  As  the  old  man's  statement  runs:— 
being  confined  with  rheumatism,  he  was  not  sleep 
ing  well,  was  in  misery  and  distress  soul  and  body, 
and,  at  the  dead  of  night,  when  the  house  was  still, 
the  'lights'  came.40 

Returning  to  the  illusion,  or  imitation  of  a  sense- 
perception,  the  actions  of  the  senses  are  variously 
illustrated  in  the  dream  series.  The  lower  senses, 
as  usual,  here  play  little  part.  There  is  possibly  a 
single  case  of  an  illusion  of  sense  in  the  reference 
to  delicate  flowers;  yet  there  are  two  instances  of 
illusory  taste,  as  when  the  dreamer  starts  to  eat  the 

M  E.  W.  Scripture,  «The  New  Psychology/  1897,  p.  384. 

w  Sully,  p.  115,  quoting  Griesinger. 

40  The  theory  that  disease  brings  much  dreaming  is  not  upheld 
in  the  history  of  Joseph's  parents.  Lucy's  health  was  '  preyed 
upon  by  the  death  of  her  sister,'  and  she  '  suffered  from  a  hectic 
fever,  which  threatened  to  prove  fatal,'  yet  in  these  troublous  times 
she  had  only  one  dream,  while  her  sturdy  vagabond  of  a  husband 
had  seven.  Regarding  the  visions  of  Joseph,  as  will  be  seen, — 
there  were  other  and  more  specific  causes  of  hyperideation.  The 
only  pertinent  conclusion,  from  the  story  of  his  progenitors,  is  that 
Joseph  inherited  from  his  male  progenitors,  on  both  sides,  the 
dreamy  diathesis.  See  « Biographical  Sketches/  pp.  37,  46. 


34     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

contents  of  the  Magic  Box,  and  when  he  scoops 
up  '  by  double  handfuls '  the  white  particles  of  the 
Fruit-Tree.  The  tactual  element  is  also  to  be  found, 
as  when  the  dreamer  is  much  fatigued  in  walking 
or  seems  to  go  lame.  The  auditory  illusions  are 
general,— the  guide,  or  attendant  spirit,  audibly 
commands.  Finally  the  visual  element  is  universal, 
all  the  dreams  were  counted  visions.  The  exciting 
causes  of  these  phantasms  are  more  or  less  con 
jectural.41  When  the  new  settler  had  the  night 
mare  of  '  beasts,  horned  cattle  and  roaring  animals 
bellowing  most  terrifically/  was  the  cause  digestive 
discomfort,  or  did  the  sleeper  dimly  hear  some 
commotion  in  the  barnyard  ?  Whether  the  stimu 
lation  came  from  without  or  within  is  a  physiolog 
ical  question :  there  yet  remain  varieties  of  brain  ex- 

«'  How  the  illusions  of  smell  should  arise,  is  here,  as  elsewhere, 
indeterminable.  That  of  taste  is  explicable  only  by  negation, — 
fasting  causes  dreams,  the  hungry  wanderer  longs  for  rich  feasts. 
Illusions  of  touch  or  pressure  are  attributable  to  the  condition  of 
the  muscles, — Joseph,  senior,  in  his  search  for  a  home,  had 
traveled  from  Vermont  to  the  Genesee  valley  and  had  there 
cleared  thirty  acres  of  land.  As  to  sight  and  touch,  it  is  hard  to 
determine  whether  the  excitation  was  peripheral  or  central.  It  is 
here  that  the  hard  and  fast  distinction  between  illusion  and  hallu 
cination  is  seen  to  be  untenable ;  for  the  latter  like  the  former  may 
arise  inwardly.  There  appear  to  be  dream-images  due  to  direct 
central  stimulation, — the  brain,  in  and  of  itself,  producing  '  stars,' 
'  lights,'  «  waving  bands  ' — the  last  being  exemplified  in  Lucy's 
dream  of  the  tree  with  the  golden  zone  and  with  branches  '  danc 
ing  as  lively  as  a  sunbeam.' 


ANCESTRY  AND  DREAMS  35 

citation,  which  may  be  more  pertinently  expressed 
in  terms  of  psychology.  Direct  excitations  are  pre- 
sentative  and  are  connected  with  the  immediate 
present;  indirect  excitations  are  representative,  and 
are  connected  through  the  law  of  association  with 
the  past, — the  brainl^  merely  reviving  impressions 
previously  received. 

The  point  of  interest  in  all  this  is  that  the  dreams 
of  Joseph's  progenitors  hold  the  mirror  up  to  na 
ture,  reflect  their  innermost  notions,  beliefs  and 
modes  of  thought.  Thus  Solomon  Mack  connects 
those  midnight  flames  with  'the  horrible  pit  of  sin 
in  which  he  lay';  Lucy  interprets  'the  breath  of 
heaven'  which  passed  over  the  two  trees  as  the 
'  pure  and  undefiled  gospel';  and  Joseph,  the  elder, 
attributed  the  'withering  of  the  flesh  upon  his 
bones '  to  the  demands  of  Justice  over  Mercy. 

The  dreams  of  Joseph's  ancestors  are,  at  the  best, 
but  a  dim  avenue  into  their  brains.  In  his  own 
case  there  is  more  profit  in  reversing  the  process, — 
in  studying  the  source  of  his  phantasms  before  the 
fantastic  in  his  character.  Without  a  knowledge  of 
his  environment,  his  visions  are  inexplicable. 


CHAPTER  II 
ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS 


CHAPTER  II 

ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS 

WHEN  the  Smith  family  moved  to  central  New 
York  in  1815,  the  country  was  by  no  means  settled. 
Only  the  year  before,  the  Holland  Land  Com 
pany  had  bought  up  the  tract  west  of  Seneca 
Lake,  originally  held  in  speculation  by  Phelps  and 
Gorham,  and  was  now  offering  special  inducements 
to  settlers.1  Joseph  Smith,  senior,  joining  in  this 
emigration  from  New  England,  and  taking  up  his 
claim  in  Ontario  County,2  found  that  his  farm  had 
literally  to  be  burned  out  of  the  woods.  The  land 
was  called  the  western  wilderness  and  there  was  a 
spice  of  danger  in  the  life.  Rochester  consisted  of 
not  more  than  two  or  three  log  houses,  and  the 
Indians  but  two  years  before  had  desolated  the 
whole  Niagara  frontier.3  President  Timothy 
Dwight  in  his  Travels  draws  a  vivid  picture  of  the 

1  E.  H.  Roberts, '  The  Planting  and  Growth  of  the  Empire 
State,'  2,  458. 

» J.  H.  Hotchkin,  « A  History  of  the  Purchase  and  Settlement  of 
Western  New  York,'  1848,  p.  375  : — Palmyra  was  number  12  in 
the  second  and  third  ranges  of  Phelps  and  Gorham's  purchase. 

'  Hotchkin,  p.  94. 

39 


40     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

region.  He  has  a  keen  eye  for  the  lonely  forests 
and  the  traces  of  the  red  man;  he  mentions  the 
packs  of  wolves  which  drive  the  wayfarer  to  the 
trees ;  in  his  journey  over  the  military  route  he  care 
fully  enumerates  the  expansions  of  mud,  in  their 
order,  and  asserts  that  in  all  this  tract  there  was 
nothing,  which  may  be  called  a  town  except  Ge 
neva  and  Canandaigua.* 

To  this  locality,  remote  and  unfriended,  Lucy 
Smith  brought  her  family.  She  followed  the  state 
road,  opened  from  the  Mohawk  to  the  inner  lakes, 
by  which  even  a  post  rider  took  two  weeks  be 
tween  Albany  and  the  Genesee  valley.5  It  was  not 
for  a  decade  that  the  canal  was  completed  between 
the  Hudson  and  Lake  Erie,6  and,  by  the  time  the 
Book  of  Mormon  was  in  circulation,  the  journey 
from  New  York  city  to  the  centre  of  the  state  was 
a  slow  pilgrimage  by  stage  coach,  canal  boat,  and 
horse  railroad.7 

The  physical  environment  had  its  mental  effects. 
Owing  to  the  wretched  means  of  communication 
and  the  rudeness  of  the  country,  the  education 
obtainable  by  the  Smith  children,  whether  at  Pal 
myra  or  Manchester,  was  necessarily  meagre.  If 

« President  Timothy  Dwight,  'Travels  in  New  England  and 
New  York,'  1822,  Letters  II  and  III. 

« Roberts,  p.  453.  «  Roberts,  p.  537. 

'A.  B.  Hart,  'American  History  told  by  Contemporaries,'  3, 566. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS        41 

one  of  his  own  disciples  complained  of  the  proph 
et's  inability  to  read  long  words,8  the  cause  for 
such  illiteracy  was  obvious.  He  had  attended 
school  for  less  than  a  year  in  his  native  state.9 
There  the  educational  provisions  of  the  state  con 
stitution  had  as  yet  not  been  fulfilled,10  while  of  the 
founders  of  Vermont  it  was  said  that  few  were 
versed  in  the  rules  of  grammar.11  A  like  state  of 
affairs  existed  on  the  frontiers  of  New  York;  where 
the  average  school  attendance  was  but  three 
months11  in  the  year  and  where,  at  the  time  of  the 
writing  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  there  were  not  two 
academies  to  a  county.18  Moreover  in  their  toils  in 
the  backwoods  the  boys  were  needed  at  home;  one 
prominent  Mormon  is  not  loth  to  confess  that  at 
sixteen  he  had  his  last  schooling  for  many  years." 

s  Interview  with  David  Whitmer  in  the  Missouri  Times,  n.  d. 
9 «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  60. 

10  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Education,  1868,  p.  90.     The  Ver 
mont  Constitution  of  1793,  Article  41  reads:  '  A  competent  number 
of  scholars  ought  to  be  maintained  in  each  town  for  the  convenient 
instruction  of  youth     .     .     .     and  one  or  more  grammar  schools 
in  each  county.' 

11  Z.  Thompson,  '  History  of  Vermont,'  1842,  p.  212. 

13  Report  of  Commissioner  qf  Education,  «  Early  Common  Schools 
in  New  York,  etc.,'  1897,  P-  224: — '  Up  to  the  revision  of  the  state 
constitution  in  1822,  each  school  district  had  $20  from  the  state. 
A  three  months'  term  of  common  schooling  was  secured  by  stale 
and  local  taxation.' 

13  Roberts,  p.  554. 

»<P.  P.  Pratt,  'Autobiography,'  1888,  p.  1 8. 


42      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Another  reports,  with  a  humorous  touch  of  truth, 
_^  the  local  saying  that  '  none  of  them  Smith  boys 
ever  went  to  school,  when  he  could  get  out  of  it.'15 
As  the  prophet  himself  said  in  later  years:  '  I  am  a 
rough  stone.  The  sound  of  the  hammer  and  chisel 
was  never  heard  on  me  until  the  Lord  took  me  in 
hand.  I  desire  the  learning  of  heaven  alone.'16 

Along  with  these  shortcomings  in  education  went 
an  equal  scarcity  of  books.  Every  house  had  its 
Bible, "  but  of  general  reading  there  was  a  woful 
lack.  If  at  this  time  it  cost  a  day's  wages  to  carry 
a  letter  from  Boston  to  Cincinnati, 18  books  could 
not  have  been  widely  circulated  by  mail.  Moreover 
the  state  library  was  not  founded  at  Albany  until 
1818  and  local  libraries  were  rarer  than  Indian  reser 
vations.  It  is  reported  by  an  adverse  critic  that 
Joseph  had  a  special  fondness  for  Captain  Kidd's  Life 
and  for  the  Memoirs  of  Stephen  Burroughs.19  The 
latter  is  not  improbable,  for  the  book  was  published 
in  Albany  in  1811  and  its  author  hailed  from  Han 
over,  New  Hampshire,  one  of  the  abiding  places  of 

*•  Elder  Edward  Stevenson,  « Reminiscences  of  the  Prophet, 
1893,  p.  680. 

16 G.  Q.  Cannon, 'Life  of  Joseph  Smith  the  Prophet,'  1888, 
p.  496. 

17  A.  De  Tocqueville,  '  Democracy  in  America,'  1833,  I,  406  : — 
'  The  backwoodsman  penetrates  into  the  wilds  of  the  New  World 
with  the  Bible,  an  axe,  and  some  newspapers.' 

*8  Roberts,  p.  676. 

»»J.  H.  Kennedy,  'Early  Days  of  Mormonism,1  1888,  p.  13. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS        43 

the  Smiths.  At  any  rate,  this  strange  adventurer's 
description  of  himself  betrays  a  certain  prophetic 
affinity  to  his  young  reader.  He  was  educated  '  in 
all  the  rigors  of  sectarianism,  which  illy  suited  his 
volatile  and  impatient  temper  of  mind. 20  However 
large  the  list  of  books  that  the  prophet  read  and 
recorded  in  his  later  days  of  self-education,  there  is  no 
positive  evidence  as  to  his  youthful  literary  pabulum. 
His  mother  said  of  him  in  his  nineteenth  year  that 
he  'had  never  read  the  Bible  through  in  his  life;  he 
seemed  much  less  inclined  to  the  perusal  of  books 
than  any  of  the  rest  of  our  children.'11  Neverthe 
less  the  classes  of  books  available  to  the  backwoods 
boy  may  be  fairly  conjectured.  One  Mormon  emi 
grant  from  Otsego  County  to  Ohio  mentions  taking 
with  him  McKenzie's  Travels  in  the  Northwest  and 
Lewis  and  Clarke's  Tours  on  the  Mississippi  and 
Colorado. 2a  But  the  very  books  of  adventure  had  a 
religious  tinge.  Burrough's  autobiography  discloses 
a  sanctimonious  sinner;  Lewis  and  Clarke's  volume 
contains  speculations  as  to  the  American  Indians 
being  the  lost  ten  tribes  of  Israel. 23  The  wide  cur 
rency  of  this  peculiar  belief  will  be  examined  later 
in  its  bearings  on  Joseph's  own  writings. 

20<  Memoirs  of  Stephen  Burroughs,'  Albany,  1811,  p.  5. 

21 «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  84. 

M  Pratt,  p.  27. 

83 « The  Travels  of  Lewis  and  Clarke,'  London,  1809,  p.  228. 


44     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Meanwhile,  it  is  evident  that  the  books  which 
chiefly  influenced  him  were  of  a  religious  cast.24 
There  yet  survived,  after  the  Puritan  fashion,  ac 
counts  of  memorable  providences  and  ponderous 
controversial  treatises.25  If  the  Smiths  possessed 
any  native  Vermont  books  they  would  have  borne 
such  titles  as  these:  Baylies'  Free  Agency,  Burnap's 
Etherial  Director,  Hopkin's  Primitive  Creed.™ 
Of  such  tomes  their  mere  bulk,  the  force  of  their 
gravity,  was  an  incubus  on  young  minds. 

There  was  need  for  a  change;  but  when  a  new 
stir  of  thought  reached  the  masses  it  was  anything 
but  a  message  of  sweetness  and  light.  French  ra 
tionalism  furnished  the  main  intellectual  stimulus," 
and  '  Tom  '  Paine  was  the  popular  representative  of 
brains.  An  enormous  edition  of  the  Age  of  Reason 
was  printed  in  France  and  shipped  to  America,  to 
be  sold  for  a  few  pence  the  copy,  or  distributed 

84  De  Tocqueville,  2,  65,  notes  the  '  Enormous  quantity  of  reli 
gious    works,  Bibles,  sermons,   edifying  anecdotes,  controversial 
divinity  and   reports   of  charitable    societies/     Compare   G.   W. 
Fisher,  «  Early  History  of  Rochester,'  p.   1 1  :  of  the  two  earliest 
Rochester  papers,  one    bore  the  title  of  the   Gospel  Luminary. 
Compare  also  Rochester  Daily  Advertiser,  August  31,  1832.     In  a 
bookseller's  advertisement  of  that  date,  religious  works  take  up 
the  largest  share  of  the  list. 

85  Henry  Ferguson,  «  Essays  in  American  Literature,'  1894,  p.  65. 

86  Z.  Thompson,  'History  of  Vermont,'  1842,  p.    173:    Books 
issued  from  the  Press  of  Vermont. 

*'  Noah  Porter,  Appendix  to  Ueberweg's, « History  of  Philosophy,' 
2,45'- 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS        45 

gratis.28  Thus,  by  the  time  that  clubs  of  Free 
Thinkers  sprang  up  in  western  New  York,29  the  Mor 
mon  prophet's  mind  was  set,  and  he  could  see  noth 
ing  in  free  thought,  but  rank  infidelity.  Later  there 
may  be  found  a  few  interesting  hints  of  the  Deistic 
controversy  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  but  the  great 
est  force  in  the  author's  early  mental  environment 
was  not  rationalism  but  religiosity.  He  grew  up  in 
a  perfect  maze  of  sectarianism.  In  a  denomina 
tional  encyclopedia,  to  which  Joseph  Smith,  as  head 
of  his  church,  contributed  a  characteristic  article, 
there  were  set  down  forty-three  sects  of  standing 
in  the  United  States.  The  multiplying  of  religious 
bodies  was  particularly  noticeable  in  Joseph's  forma 
tive  period.  For  example,  in  the  sixteen  years  be 
tween  the  moving  to  Palmyra  and  the  coming  forth 
of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  four  schisms  occurred  in 
the  Methodist  body  alone.30  This  reckless  process 
of  scission  was  one  reason  for  the  rise  of  Mormon- 
ism.  Another  was  the  length  to  which  sectaries 
went  in  their  beliefs  and  practices.  Smith's  native 
state  had  its  share  of  fanatical  bodies,  and  there  was 

*8  Timothy  Dwight, '  Religion  of  New  England,  in  Travels,'  4,  380. 

2»  Hotchkin,  p.  26. 

30 1.  D.R  upp, '  He  Pasa  Ekklesia,  or  Religious  Denominations  in 
the  United  States,'  1849,  passim:  'The  Reformed  Methodists' 
started  in  1814;  the  'Methodist  Society'  in  1820;  the  'True 
Wesleyan  Methodist  Church'  in  1828  and  the  'Methodist  Protes 
tants  '  in  1830. 


J 


I 


46      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Ine  which  appeared  as  a  strange  prototype  of  the 
Mormon  movement.  The  '  Pilgrims '  were  a  vaga 
bond  swarm  in  the  south  of  Vermont.  Sickness 
had  rendered  the  founder  visionary;  he  asserted  that 
he  was  a  prophet  and  claimed  immediate  inspiration 
from  heaven.  Property  was  held  in  common  and 
the  leader  controlled  all  the  affairs  of  his  followers 
from  marriages  to  punishments.  This  band,  in  its 
search  for  the  'promised  land,'  attempted  to  com 
bine  with  the  Shakers,  passed  through  central  New 
York  and  disappeared  in  the  West.31 

Although  the  larger  denomination  and  not  the 
petty  sects  held  sway  in  Joseph's  locality,  their  in 
fluence  was  abnormal.  The  pioneer  churches  had 
been  founded  by  the  missionary  boards  of  New 
England,  but  the  methods  of  work  were  borrowed 
from  the  Southwest.  The  doctrines  were  Calvin- 
istic,  the  means  of  grace  revivalistic.  The  camp- 
meeting  had  originated  in  Kentucky  in  1799,  and 
strange  phenomena  were  seen,  when  thousands  fell 
in  convulsions  and  '  the  formal  professor,  the  deist, 
the  intemperate  were  collected  and  laid  out  in  order 
on  the  meeting  house  floor.'82  The  methods  of 
wholesale  conversion  spread  from  the  West  east 
ward,  and  it  is  significant  that,  in  New  York  State, 

»!  Thompson,  p.  203. 

32  H.  Howe, '  Historical  Collections  of  the  Great  West,'  Cincinnati, 
1857,  p.  216. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS        47 

the  Great  Revival  began  in  Joseph's  own  town.  A 
letter  of  an  itinerant  evangelist  of  the  Connecticut 
Missionary  Society  thus  describes  the  movement: 
'  The  seriousness  began  at  Palmyra.  The  youth  and 
children  seem  to  be  roused  up  to  inquire,  What 
must  we  do  to  be  saved  ?  A  few  drops  from  the 
cloud  of  glory  have  fallen  upon  Pittstown.  There 
is  uncommon  attention  to  public  worship  in  Canan- 
daigua.  It  has  been  difficult  during  the  winter  to 
get  places  large  enough  to  accommodate,  or  even 
contain  the  people.  The  countenances  of  many 
show  how  anxious  their  minds  are  to  know  how 
they  may  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.' M  The  other 
side  of  the  picture  may  be  here  given  and  from  a 
Mormon  standpoint.  A  brother  of  Brigham  Young 
gives  this  fragment  of  experience:  'A  Methodist 
revival  occurred,  and  religious  excitement  ran  so 
high  that  it  became  fashionable  to  make  a  profes 
sion  of  religion.  Every  young  person  but  myself 
professed  to  receive  a  "saving  change  of  heart." 
Meetings  were  held  nightly.  It  was  the  custom  to 
request  those  who  were  "  seeking  religion  "  to  come 
forward  to  some  seat  reserved  for  that  purpose,  to 
be  prayed  for.  .  .  .  When  I  failed  to  come  to  the 
"anxious  seat"  Elder  Gilmore  told  me  I  had  sinned 
away  the  day  of  grace  and  my  damnation  was  sure.'  ** 

3'  Hotchkin,  pp.  36,  37. 

34  Lorenzo  D.  Young,  '  Fragments  of  Experience,'  1882,  p.  25. 


48      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

The  psycho-physical  effect  of  all  this  may  be 
judged  from  the  experience  of  another  Mormon. 
He  says  that  in  one  of  the  protracted  meetings  '  a 
continual  stream  of  glorious  truths  passed  through 
my  mind,  my  happiness  was  great,  and  my  mind  so 
absorbed  in  spiritual  things  that  all  the  time  the 
meeting  lasted,  which  was  about  fifteen  days,  I 
scarcely  ate  or  drank  anything.  .  .  .  The  spirit 
of  the  Lord  so  operated  on  my  system  that  1  felt 
full  at  the  time,  and  had  no  desire  to  eat  or  partake 
of  anything.'35  The  unnatural  exaltation,  here  por 
trayed,  was  not  such  an  evil  result  as  the  morbid 
depression.  Even  if  the  bodily  effect  was  not  at 
once  manifested,  there  was  an  immediate  and  bale 
ful  influence  on  the  mind.  Mental  bewilderment 
and  melancholia  were  the  accompaniments  of  youth 
ful  conversion.  Confused  by  the  practices  of  rival 
sectaries,  one  young  'seeker'  wondered  why  the 
Presbyterians  only  sprinkled  water  in  the  face,  while 
the  Baptists  immersed,  and  why  the  Methodists  did 
not  baptize  for  remission  of  sins  but  demanded  an 
'  experience.'  So  Parley  Pratt  maintains  that  he 
went  West  to  escape  the  wrangling  about  sects  and 
creeds  and  doctrines.36 

The  converse  of  the  proposition,  that  confusion 
in  thought,  in  turn,  propagated  new  sects  is  one  of 

35  Benjamin  Brown,  'Testimonies  for  the  Truth,'  1853,  p.  5. 
36 « Autobiography,'  1 888,  pp.  23,  26. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS        49 

the  problems  in  the  founding  of  the  Church  of 
Latter-day  Saints.  But  in  the  case  of  the  individual, 
mental  bewilderment  passes  over  into  an  abhor 
rence  of  the  doctrines  taught.  Benjamin  Brown, 
the  same  boy  who  had  experienced  an  undue  ex 
altation  of  spirits,  was  of  Quaker  parentage.  Liv 
ing  on  a  farm  in  Washington  County,  he  had  gained, 
in  his  isolation,  a  strong  faith  in  the  Bible.  Moving 
to  the  town,  where  the  sects  warred,  the  jarrings 
and  uncertainties  of  the  new  ideas  shook  his  sim 
ple  faith.  'There,'  he  relates,  'the  Universalist 
system  appeared  most  reasonable;  the  horrible  hell 
and  damnation  theories  of  most  of  the  other  part 
ies,  being  in  my  idea  inconsistent  with  the  mercy 
and  love  of  God.'37 

The  accounts  of.  the  Mormon  p^verts  are  borne 
out  by  the  report  of  the  very  missionary  who 
started  the  Palmyra  revival.  He  observes: — 'The 
doctrines  to  awaken  and  convince  sinners  are 
Calvinistic, — the  doctrines  of  man's  entire  depravity 
of  heart  by  nature  and  alienation  from  God;  his 
inability  while  remaining  in  this  state  to  do  any 
thing  acceptable  to  God;  man's  particular  obligation 
to  do  the  whole  law  of  God;  [and]  the  particular 
election  of  a  select  number  of  the  human  family  to 
final  salvation.'38  How  such  doctrines  could  have 
been  privately  believed  and  publicly  set  forth,  has 

81 « Testimonies,'  pp.  3,  4.  38  Hotchkin,  p.  39. 


50     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

been  but  lamely  explained.  It  is  alleged  that  the 
itinerant  preacher  traveling  from  month  to  month 
through  the  gloom  of  almost  sunless  forests  ac 
quired  a  '  pensive  turn  of  thought.'  *9 
/  If  the  cause  is  conjectural,  the  effect  is  not:  a 
sombre  theology  brought  an  intense  melancholy, — 
'  as  the  exhorters  grew  enthusiastic,  the  people  were 
much  exercised  over  their  sinful  condition.' 40  Now 
such  were  the  preconditions  of  young  Joseph 
Smith's  peculiar  psychic  experiences,  of  which  he 
gives  the  following  account: — 41 

FIRST  VISION. 

'  Some  time  in  the  second  year  after  our  re 
moval  to  Manchester,  there  was  in  the  place 

39  Howe,  p.  303. 

40  H.  Caswell,  '  The  Life  of  Joseph  Smith  the  Prophet,'  1888, 

P-  34- 

41 « Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  pp.  84-98,  extracts  from  the  History  of 
Joseph  Smith,  written  by  himself  in  « Times  and  Seasons,'  Volume 
III.  There  is  also  Joseph's  parallel  account  written  to  the  Chicago 
Democrat  in  1842.  Compare  '  Handbook  of  Reference,'  pp.  9,  10 : 
— « When  about  fourteen  years  of  age,  I  began  to  reflect  upon  the 
importance  of  being  prepared  for  a  future  state,  and  upon  enquiring 
upon  the  plan  of  salvation,  I  found  that  there  was  a  great  clash  in 
religious  sentiment ;  if  I  went  to  one  society,  they  referred  me  to 
one  plan,  and  another  to  another,  each  one  pointing  to  his  own 
particular  creed  as  the  summum  bonum  of  perfection.  Considering 
that  all  could  not  be  right,  and  that  God  could  not  be  the  author  of 
so  much  confusion,  I  determined  to  investigate  the  subject  more 
fully,  believing  that  if  God  had  a  church,  it  would  not  be  split  up 
into  factions,  and  that  if  He  taught  one  society  to  worship  one  way, 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         51 

where  we  lived  an  unusual  excitement  on  the 
subject  of  religion.  ...  I  was  at  this  time 
in  my  fifteenth  year.  .  .  .  During  this  time 
of  great  excitement,  my  mind  was  called  up  to 


and  administer  in  one  set  of  ordinances,  He  would  not  teach 
another  principles  which  were  diametrically  opposed.  Believing 
the  word  of  God,  I  had  confidence  in  the  declaration  of  James, 
"  If  any  man  lack  wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  who  giveth  to  all 
men  liberally  and  upbraideth  not,  and  it  shall  be  given  him."  I 
retired  to  a  secret  place  in  a  grove  and  began  to  call  upon  the 
Lord.  While  fervently  engaged  in  supplication,  my  mind  was 
taken  away  from  the  objects  with  which  I  was  surrounded,  and  I 
was  enwrapped  in  a  heavenly  vision,  and  saw  two  glorious  per 
sonages,  who  exactly  resembled  each  other  in  features  and  likeness, 
surrounded  with  a  brilliant  light,  which  eclipsed  the  sun  at  noon 
day.  They  told  me  that  all  religious  denominations  were  believ 
ing  in  incorrect  doctrines,  and  that  none  of  them  was  acknowledged 
of  God  as  His  church  and  kingdom.  And  I  was  expressly  com 
manded  to  "  go  not  after  them  " ;  at  the  same  time  receiving  a 
promise  that  the  fulness  of  the  gospel  should  at  some  future  time 
be  made  known  unto  me.' 

Orson  Pratt  gives  a  third  account  of  Joseph's  first  vision  in  his 
book  entitled  '  Remarkable  Visions,'  1841.  It  is  a  paraphrase,  and, 
yet  being  written  a  year  before  the  Chicago  Democrat  version,  may 
contain  some  first-hand  information : — 

1  He,  therefore,  retired  to  a  secret  place,  in  a  grove,  but  a  short 
distance  from  his  father's  house,  and  knelt  down  and  began  to  call 
upon  the  Lord.  At  first,  he  was  severely  tempted  by  the  powers 
of  darkness,  which  endeavored  to  overcome  him,  but  he  continued 
to  seek  for  deliverance,  until  darkness  gave  way  from  his  mind, 
and  he  was  enabled  to  pray  in  fervency  of  the  spirit,  and  in  faith ; 
and  while  thus  pouring  out  his  soul,  anxiously  desiring  an  answer 
from  God,  he  saw  a  very  bright  and  glorious  light  in  the  heavens 
above,  which  at  first  seemed  to  be  at  a  considerable  distance.  He 
continued  praying,  while  the  light  appeared  to  be  gradually  de 
scending  towards  him;  and,  as  it  drew  nearer,  it  increased  in 


52     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

serious  reflection  and  great  uneasiness ;  but 
though  my  feelings  were  deep  and  often  pun 
gent,  still  I  kept  myself  aloof  from  all  those 

brightness  and  magnitude,  so  that  by  the  time  that  it  reached  the 
tops  of  the  trees,  the  whole  wilderness,  for  some  distance  around, 
was  illuminated  in  a  most  glorious  and  brilliant  manner.  He  ex 
pected  to  have  seen  the  leaves  and  boughs  of  the  trees  consumed, 
as  soon  as  the  light  came  in  contact  with  them ;  but,  perceiving 
that  it  did  not  produce  that  effect,  he  was  encouraged  with  the  hope 
of  being  able  to  endure  its  presence.  It  continued  descending 
slowly  until  it  rested  upon  the  earth,  and  he  was  enveloped  in  the 
midst  of  it.  When  it  first  came  upon  him,  it  produced  a  peculiar 
sensation  throughout  his  whole  system ;  and,  immediately,  his  mind 
was  caught  away  from  the  natural  objects  with  which  he  was  sur 
rounded,  and  he  was  enwrapped  in  a  heavenly  vision,  and  saw  two 
glorious  personages,  who  exactly  resembled  each  other  in  their 
features  or  likeness.  He  was  informed  that  his  sins  were  forgiven. 
He  was  also  informed  upon  the  subjects  which  had  for  some  time 
previously  agitated  his  mind,  namely,  that  all  religious  denomi 
nations  were  believing  in  incorrect  doctrines ;  and,  consequently, 
that  none  of  them  was  acknowledged  of  God  as  His  church  and 
kingdom.  And  he  was  expressly  commanded  to  go  not  after  them : 
and  he  received  a  promise  that  the  true  doctrine — the  fulness  of 
the  gospel — should,  at  some  future  time,  be  made  known  to  him ; 
after  which,  the  vision  withdrew,  leaving  his  mind  in  a  state  of 
calmness  and  peace  indescribable.' 


•On  the  evening  of  the  2ist  of  September,  A.  D.,  1823,  while  I 
was  praying  unto  God,  and  endeavoring  to  exercise  faith  in  the 
precious  promises  of  scripture,  on  a  sudden,  a  light  like  that  of  day, 
only  of  a  far  purer  and  more  glorious  appearance  and  brightness, 
burst  into  the  room ;  indeed  the  first  sight  was  as  though  the  house 
was  filled  with  consuming  fire.  The  appearance  produced  a  shock 
that  affected  the  whole  body.  In  a  moment  a  personage  stood  be 
fore  me  surrounded  with  a  glory  yet  greater  than  that  with  which  I 
was  already  surrounded.' 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         53 

parties,  though  I  attended  their  several  meet 
ings  as  often  as  occasion  would  permit.  .  .  . 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  a  beautiful  clear 
day,  early  in  the  spring  of  eighteen  hundred 
and  twenty.  It  was  the  first  time  in  my  life 
that  I  had  made  such  an  attempt,  for  amidst  all 
my  anxieties  I  had  never  as  yet  made  the  at 
tempt  to  pray  vocally. 

After  I  had  retired  into  the  place  where  I  had 
previously  designed  to  go,  having  looked  around 
me  and  finding  myself  alone,  I  kneeled  down 
and  began  to  offer  up  the  desires  of  my  heart 
to  God.  I  had  scarcely  done  so,  when  im 
mediately  I  was  seized  upon  by  some  power 
which  entirely  overcame  me,  and  had  such  as 
tonishing  influence  over  me  as  to  bind  my 
tongue  so  that  I  could  not  speak.  Thick  dark 
ness  gathered  around  me,  and  it  seemed  to  me 
for  a  time  as  if  I  were  doomed  to  sudden  de 
struction.  But,  exerting  all  my  powers  to  call 
upon  God  to  deliver  me  out  of  the  power  of  this 
enemy  which  had  seized  upon  me,  and  at  the 
very  moment  when  I  was  ready  to  sink  into 
despair  and  abandon  myself  to  destruction,  not 
to  an  imaginary  ruin,  but  to  the  power  of  some 
actual  being  from  the  unseen  world,  who  had 
such  a  marvelous  power  as  I  had  never  before 
felt  in  any  being.  Just  at  this  moment  of  great 
alarm,  I  saw  a  pillar  of  light  exactly  over  my 
head,  above  the  brightness  of  the  Sun,  which 
descended  gradually  until  it  fell  upon  me.  It 
no  sooner  appeared  than  I  found  myself  de 
livered  from  the  enemy  which  held  me  bound. 


54     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

When  the  light  rested  upon  me,  I  saw  two  per 
sonages  whose  brightness  and  glory  defy  all 
description,  standing  above  me  in  the  air.  One 
of  them  spake  unto  me.  .  .  .  When  I 
came  to  myself  again  I  found  myself  lying  on 
my  back,  looking  up  into  heaven.' 

SECOND  VISION. 

I  continued  to  pursue  my  common  avoca 
tions  of  life  until  the  twenty-first  of  September, 
one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-three, 
all  the  time  suffering  severe  persecution  at  the 
hands  of  all  classes  of  men,  both  religious  and 
irreligious,  because  I  continued  to  affirm  that  I 
had  seen  a  vision. 

During  the  space  of  time  which  intervened 
between  the  time  I  had  the  vision,  and  the  year 
eighteen  hundred  and  twenty-three,  (having 
been  forbidden  to  join  any  of  the  religious  sects 
of  the  day,  and  being  of  very  tender  years,  and 
persecuted  by  those  who  ought  to  have  been 
my  friends,  and  to  have  treated  me  kindly,  and 
if  they  supposed  me  to  be  deluded  to  have  en 
deavored,  in  a  proper  and  affectionate  manner, 
to  have  reclaimed  me,)  I  was  left  to  all  kinds 
of  temptations,  and  mingling  with  all  kinds  of 
society,  I  frequently  fell  into  many  foolish  er 
rors,  and  displayed  the  weakness  of  youth,  and 
the  corruption  of  human  nature,  which  I  am 
sorry  to  say  led  me  into  divers  temptations,  to 
the  gratification  of  many  appetites  offensive  in 
the  sight  of  God.  In  consequence  of  these 
things  I  often  felt  condemned  for  my  weakness 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         55 

and  imperfections ;  when  on  the  evening  of  the 
above  mentioned  twenty-first  of  September, 
after  I  had  retired  to  my  bed  for  the  night,  I 
betook  myself  to  prayer  and  supplication  to 
Almighty  God,  for  forgiveness  of  all  my  sins 
and  follies,  and  also  for  a  manifestation  to  me, 
that  I  might  know  of  my  state  and  standing 
before  him ;  for  I  had  full  confidence  in  ob 
taining  a  divine  manifestation,  as  I  had  pre 
viously  had  one. 

While  I  was  thus  in  the  act  of  calling  upon 
God,  I  discovered  a  light  appearing  in  the 
room,  which  continued  to  increase  until  the 
room  was  lighter  than  at  noonday,  when  imme 
diately  a  personage  appeared  at  my  bedside, 
standing  in  the  air,  for  his  feet  did  not  touch 
the  floor. 

***** 

While  he  was  conversing  with  me  about  the 
plates,  the  vision  was  opened  to  my  mind  that 
I  could  see  the  place  where  the  plates  were  de 
posited,  and  that  so  clearly  and  distinctly,  that 
I  knew  the  place  again  when  I  visited  it. 

After  this  communication,  I  saw  the  light  in 
the  room  begin  to  gather  immediately  around 
the  person  of  him  who  had  been  speaking  to 
me,  and  it  continued  to  do  so,  until  the  room 
was  again  left  dark,  except  just  around  him, 
when  instantly  I  saw,  as  it  were,  a  conduit 
open  right  up  into  heaven,  and  he  ascended  up 
till  he  entirely  disappeared,  and  the  room  was 
left  as  it  had  been  before  this  heavenly  light 
had  made  its  appearance. 


56     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

I  lay  musing  on  the  singularity  of  the  scene, 
and  marveling  greatly  at  what  had  been  told 
me  by  this  extraordinary  messenger,  when,  in 
the  midst  of  my  meditation,  I  suddenly  dis 
covered  that  my  room  was  again  beginning  to 
get  lighted,  and  in  an  instant,  as  it  were,  the 
same  heavenly  messenger  was  again  by  my  bed 
side.  He  commenced,  and  again  related  the 
very  same  things  which  he  had  done  at  his  first 
visit,  without  the  least  variation.  But  this 
time,  so  deep  were  the  impressions  made  on 
my  mind,  that  sleep  had  fled  from  my  eyes, 
and  I  lay  overwhelmed  in  astonishment  at  what 
I  had  both  seen  and  heard ;  but  what  was  my 
surprise  when  again  I  beheld  the  same  mes 
senger  at  my  bedside,  and  heard  him  rehearse 
or  repeat  over  again  to  me  the  same  things  as 
before  .  .  .  almost  immediately  after  the 
heavenly  messenger  had  ascended  from  me  the 
third  time,  the  cock  crew,  and  I  found  that  day 
was  approaching,  so  that  our  interview  must 
have  occupied  the  whole  of  that  night. 

THIRD  VISION. 

I  shortly  after  arose  from  my  bed,  and,  as 
usual  went  to  the  necessary  labors  of  the  day, 
but,  in  attempting  to  labor  as  at  other  times  I 
found  my  strength  so  exhausted  as  rendered  me 
entirely  unable.  My  father,  who  was  laboring 
along  with  me,  discovered  something  to  be 
wrong  with  me,  and  told  me  to  go  home.  I 
started  with  the  intention  of  going  to  the  house, 
but,  in  attempting  to  cross  the  fence  out  of  the 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         57 

field  where  we  were,  my  strength  entirely  failed 
me,  and  I  fell  helpless  on  the  ground,  and  for 
a  time  was  quite  unconscious  of  anything. 
The  first  thing  that  I  can  recollect,  was  a  voice 
speaking  unto  me  calling  me  by  name;  I 
looked  up  and  beheld  the  same  messenger 
standing  over  my  head,  surrounded  by  light, 
as  before.  He  then  again  related  unto  me  all 
that  he  had  related  to  me  the  previous  night, 
and  commanded  me  to  go  to  my  father,  and 
tell  him  of  the  vision  and  commandments 
which  I  had  received.  I  obeyed,  I  returned 
back  to  my  father  in  the  field  and  rehearsed 
the  whole  matter  to  him.'  ** 

«*  These  three  visions  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  series  are  to  be 
gathered  from  various  sources.  They  are  here  collated  for  the 
first  time  in  order  to  determine  Smith's  psycho-physical  state.  For 
a  technical  discussion  of  the  subject  and  for  the  authorities  referred 
to  in  the  text,  see  Appendix  II.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  mother 
Smith  alone  gives  the  series  complete.  To  begin  with  the  third 
vision,  supplying  the  dates  so  far  as  obtainable.  '  Biographical 
Sketches,'  pp.  81-105,  [September  24,  1823.]  « The  next  day,  my 
husband,  Alvin,  and  Joseph,  were  reaping  together  in  the  field, 
and  as  they  were  reaping  Joseph  stopped  quite  suddenly,  and 
seemed  to  be  in  a  very  deep  study.  Alvin,  observing  it,  hurried 
him,  saying,  'We  must  not  slacken  our  hands  or  we  will  not 
be  able  to  complete  our  task.'  Upon  this  Joseph  went  to  work 
again,  and  after  laboring  a  short  time,  he  stopped  just  as  he  had 
done  before.  This  being  quite  unusual  and  strange,  it  attracted 
the  attention  of  his  father,  upon  which  he  discovered  that  Joseph 
was  very  pale.  My  husband,  supposing  that  he  was  sick,  told  him 
to  go  to  the  house,  and  have  his  mother  doctor  him.  He,  accord 
ingly,  ceased  his  work,  and  started,  but  on  coming  to  a  beautiful 
green,  under  an  apple-tree,  he  stopped  and  lay  down,  for  he  was  so 
weak  he  could  proceed  no  further.  He  was  here  but  a  short  time, 


58      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Were  these  early  visions  of  Joseph  entirely  due 
to  his  religious  environment  and  revivalistic  ex 
periences  ?  The  question  is  partially  answered  by 

when  the  messenger  whom  he  saw  the  previous  night,  visited  him 
again,  and  the  first  thing  he  said  was,  « Why  did  you  not  tell  your 
father  that  which  I  commanded  you  to  tell  him  ? '  Joseph  replied, 
« I  was  afraid  my  father  would  not  believe  me.'  The  angel  re 
joined,  «  He  will  believe  every  word  you  say  to  him.'  Joseph  then 
promised  the  angel  that  he  would  do  as  he  had  been  commanded. 
Upon  this,  the  messenger  departed,  and  Joseph  returned  to  the 
field,  where  he  had  left  my  husband  and  Alvin ;  but  when  he  got 
there,  his  father  had  just  gone  to  the  house,  as  he  was  somewhat 
unwell.  .  .  .  The  ensuing  evening,  when  the  family  were  all 
together,  Joseph  made  known  to  them  all  that  he  had  communi 
cated  to  his  father  in  the  field,  and  also  of  his  finding  the  Record, 
as  well  as  what  passed  between  him  and  the  angel  while  he  was  at 
the  place  where  the  plates  were  deposited.  Sitting  up  late  that 
evening,  in  order  to  converse  upon  these  things,  together  with 
over-exertion  of  mind,  had  much  fatigued  Joseph.' 

[September  22,  1824]  'Joseph  again  visited  the  place  where  he 
found  the  plates  the  year  previous.  In  the  moment  of  excitement, 
Joseph  was  overcome  by  the  powers  of  darkness,  and  forgot  the  in 
junction  that  was  laid  upon  him.  Having  some  further  conversation 
with  the  angel  on  this  occasion,  Joseph  was  permitted  to  raise  the 
stone  again,  when  he  beheld  the  plates  as  he  had  done  before.  He 
immediately  reached  forth  his  hand  to  take  them,  but  instead  of 
getting  them  he  was  hurled  back  upon  the  ground  with  great  vio 
lence.  When  he  recovered,  the  angel  was  gone,  and  he  arose  and 
returned  to  the  house,  weeping  for  grief  and  disappointment.' 

[September(?)  1825  and  1826.]  That  further  visions  occurred 
about  this  time  is  implied  in  Joseph's  statement :  '  According  as 
I  had  been  commanded,  I  went  at  the  end  of  each  year,  and  at 
each  time  I  found  the  same  messenger  there,  and  received  instruct 
ion  and  intelligence  from  him  at  each  of  our  interviews.' 

The  next  vision  is  described  by  Lucy,  [January  (?)  1827]. 

•  Joseph     ...     the  next  January  returned  with  his  wife,  in 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         59 

applying  the  principles  of  the  modern  psychology 
of  religion,  as  derived  from  cold-blooded  statistics. 
According  to  these  tests,  Joseph's  conversion  oc- 

good  health  and  fine  spirits.  Not  long  subsequent  to  his  return,  my 
husband  had  occasion  to  send  him  to  Manchester,  on  business.  As 
he  set  off  early  in  the  day,  we  expected  him  home  at  most  by  six 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  but  when  six  o'clock  came,  he  did  not  ar 
rive  ;  we  always  had  a  peculiar  anxiety  about  him  whenever  he  was 
absent,  for  it  seemed  as  though  something  was  always  taking  place 
to  jeopardize  his  life.  But  to  return.  He  did  not  get  home  till 
the  night  was  far  spent.  On  coming  in,  he  threw  himself  into  a 
chair,  apparently  much  exhausted. — My  husband  did  not  observe 
his  appearance,  and  immediately  exclaimed,  "  Joseph,  why  are  you 
so  late  ?  has  anything  happened  to  you  ?  We  have  been  much 
distressed  about  you  these  three  hours."  As  Joseph  made  no  an 
swer,  he  continued  his  interrogations,  until,  finally,  I  said,  «  Now, 
father,  let  him  rest  a  moment,  he  is  very  tired."  The  fact  was  I 
had  learned  to  be  a  little  cautious  about  matters  with  regard  to 
Joseph,  for  I  was  accustomed  to  see  him  look  as  he  did  on  that  oc 
casion,  and  I  could  not  easily  mistake  the  cause  thereof.  Presently 
he  said,  «  I  have  taken  the  severest  chastisement  that  I  have  ever 
had  in  my  life  ...  it  was  the  angel  of  the  Lord  ;  as  I  passed 
by  the  hill  of  Cumorah,  where  the  plates  are,  the  angel  met  me." ' 
[September  22,  1827.]  <  Joseph  started  for  the  plates  .  .  . 
secreted  about  three  miles  from  home.  .  .  .  Joseph  coming  to 
them,  .  .  .  placed  them  under  his  arm  and  started  for  home. 
After  proceeding  a  short  distance,  he  thought  it  would  be  more  safe 
to  leave  the  road  and  go  through  the  woods.  Traveling  some  dis 
tance  after  he  left  the  road,  he  came  to  a  large  windfall,  and  as  he 
was  jumping  over  a  log,  a  man  sprang  up  from  behind  it,  and  gave 
him  a  heavy  blow  with  a  gun.  Joseph  turned  around  and  knocked 
him  down,  then  ran  at  the  top  of  his  speed.  About  half  a  mile 
further  he  was  attacked  again  in  the  same  manner  as  before ;  he 
knocked  this  man  down  in  like  manner  as  the  former,  and  ran  on 
again;  and  before  he  reached  home  he  was  assaulted  the  third 
time.  In  striking  the  last  one  he  dislocated  his  thumb,  which, 


60     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

curring  a  year  before  the  average,  and  therefore 
shows  a  not  uncommon  emotional  development, 
but  the  accompanying  visions  put  him  in  the  rarer 
third  of  youth  who  have  dreams  and  hallucinations. 


however,  he  did  not  notice  until  he  came  within  sight  of  the  house, 
when  he  threw  himself  down  in  the  corner  of  the  fence  in  order  to 
recover  his  breath.  As  soon  as  he  was  able,  he  arose  and  came  to 
the  house.  He  was  still  altogether  speechless  from  fright  and  the 
fatigue  of  running.  .  .  .  When  the  chest  came,  Joseph  locked 
up  the  Record,  then  threw  himself  upon  the  bed,  and  after  resting 
a  little,  so  that  he  could  converse  freely  ...  he  showed  them 
his  thumb,  saying,  « I  must  stop  talking,  father,  and  get  you  to  put 
my  thumb  in  place,  for  it  is  very  painful." ' 

Compare  with  the  above  official  accounts  the  following  collat 
eral  evidence:  Historical  Magazine ',  May,  1870,  p.  305.  Fayette 
Lapham  in  an  interview  with  Joseph  Smith,  senior,  narrates: — 
'  Joseph,  senior,  was  a  firm  believer  in  witchcraft  and  other  super 
natural  things.  ...  In  the  course  of  a  year  Joseph  aided  by 
some  supernatural  light  found  the  treasures.  Before  he  could  get 
hold  of  them  he  felt  something  strike  him  on  the  breast,  which  was 
repeated  a  third  time,  always  with  increased  force,  the  last  such  as 
to  lay  him  upon  his  back.  As  he  lay  there  and  looked  up  his 
vision  was  repeated.  (Soon  after  joining  the  church  he  had  a 
singular  dream.)  Next  year  (after  his  marriage) — a  host  of  devils 
began  to  screech  and  to  scream  and  to  make  all  sorts  of  hideous 
yells  for  the  purpose  of  terrifying  him.  .  .  .  As  he  returned 
and  was  getting  over  the  fence,  one  of  the  devils  struck  him  a  blow 
on  his  side,  where  a  black  and  blue  spot  remained  three  or  four 
days.  ...  At  this  point  the  interview  came  to  an  end ;  and 
my  friend  and  myself  returned  home,  fully  convinced  that  we  had 
smelt  a  large  mice.' 

Compare  also,  Tiffany's  Monthly,  May,  1859.  Interview  with 
Martin  Harris,  January,  1859: — <When  Joseph  got  the  plates,  on 
his  way  home,  he  was  met  by  what  appeared  to  be  a  man  who 
struck  him  with  a  club  on  his  side,  which  was  all  black  and  blue.' 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         61 

Nevertheless  with  him,  as  with  all,  there  were  ante 
cedent  causes  leading  up  to  conviction, — months  of 
high  mental  tension  compounded  of  emotional 
pressure  from  other  religionists  and  the  demands  of 
established  institutions.  Again,  his  experiences  at 
conversion  were  not  unusual:  others  have  felt  a 
shock  in  the  body,  a  feeling  of  strangling,  a  load  on 
the  shoulders,  have  seen  rays  of  light  and  glory  and 
heard  imaginary  sounds.  With  others,  likewise, 
there  have  been  the  same  after  effects, — confusion, 
dejection  and  the  sense  of  sin,  followed  by  joy  and 
exultation,  lightness  of  heart  and  clarified  vision. 

The  point  of  consideration  in  these  common  ex 
periences  is  that  they  may  be  put  in  terms  of 
psychic  functioning,  and  may  be  largely  explained 
by  the  influences  of  suggestion  and  hypnotism. 
Just  as  the  so  called  spontaneous  awakenings  are 
the  fructification  of  the  convert's  previous  longings 
and  strivings,  so  the  ecstatic  state  is  the  result  of 
the  abnormal  methods  of  revival  leaders.  Such  are 
insistence  on  faith  and  the  monotonous  repetition  of 
prayers,  unconscious  suggestion  and  the  laying  on 
of  hands.  If  these  means  for  the  religious  hypnosis 
are  viewed  in  pairs,  they  present  a  twofold,  a 
psycho-physical  aspect.  Hence  the  abnormalities 
of  conversion  can  be  further  expressed  in  terms  of 
nervous  functioning.  The  exhaustion  and  helpless 
ness,  the  falling  to  the  ground  and  unconsciousness 


62      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

are  attributable  to  'decentralization':  the  higher 
cerebral  centres  losing  control,  there  is  a  consequent 
lessening  power  of  rational  self-restraint.  This  lack 
of  inhibitory  force  accounts  for  the  fact  that  chronic 
religious  excitement  may  be  followed  by  sensual 
excesses,  conveniently  covered  by  the  revivalistic 
term  'backsliding,' — or,  as  Joseph  Smith  expressed 
it,  the  being  '  entangled  again  in  the  vanities  of  the 
world.' 

In  the  attempt  to  construe  these  visions,  a  former 
parallel  may  be  of  avail.  In  his  Grace  Abounding 
to  the  Chief  of  Sinners,  John  Bunyan  recounts  anal 
ogous  experiences.  Formerly,  it  has  been  said,  these 
have  been  referred  to  mere  theological  associations 
and  ideas,  or  to  somewhat  abnormal,  but  loosely- 
defined  hallucinatory  delirium.43  Only  recently  has 
Bunyan's  story  been  read  in  its  psychological 
aspects, — how  as  a  child  he  showed  some  of  the 
familiar  signs  of  a  sensitive  brain;  how  he  was 
possessed  with  nocturnal  terrors  of  devils  and 
waking  fears  of  the  day  of  judgment;  how  the 
period  of  melancholic  depression  and  undue  elation 
was  finally  passed  over,  and  Bunyan's  reasoning 
power  was  left  formally  unaffected. "  This  rough 
outline  holds  true  of  Joseph  Smith;  but  the  vision 
ary  of  Manchester  alone  has  a  family  history  in 

*3  Compare  T.  B.  Macaulay,  reviewing  the  «  Pilgrim's  Progress.' 
«  Josiah  Royce,  «  Studies  of  Good  and  Evil,'  1898. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         63 

which  there  is  positive  evidence  of  serious  hered 
itary  weakness.  A  reexamination  of  Joseph's 
ancestral  line  discloses  a  paradox :  marked  longevity, 
but  also  a  strange  heritage  of  fleshly  ills.  Of  his 
grandmother,  Mary  Duty  Smith,  nothing  is  known; 
but  his  grandmother,  who  lived  until  eighty,  had  a 
well-nigh  fatal  illness  at  forty-seven.  His  grand 
father,  Asahel  Smith,  at  the  age  of  eighty-six,  was 
described  as  '  just  recovering  from  a  severe  fit '  and 
of  'weak  mind.'  In  early  manhood  he  was  nick 
named  'Crook-necked  Smith,'  and  with  the  twist  in 
his  body  there  went  a  twist  in  his  mind.45  How 
ever,  if  three-fourths  of  the  first  generation  is 
counted  a  negligible  quantity,  there  is  a  sufficient 
reason  for  the  young  Joseph's  terrifying  seizures. 
Whatever  they  may  turn  out  to  be,  they  took  place 
on  an  already  prepared  ground;  the  Cadmean  seed 
was  sown  by  his  maternal  grandfather.  Solomon 
Mack's  abnormal  mental  experiences  have  already 
been  described;  of  his  physical  vicissitudes  the  most 


44  Nehemiah  Cleaveland.  '  An  Address  at  Topsfield,  Massachu 
setts,' New  York,  1851,  p.  xxv :  'Asahel  Smith  removed  about 
1793,  to  Tunbridge,  in  Vermont.  This  man,  like  "  Ammon's  great 
son,  one  shoulder  had  too  high ;  "  and  thence  usually  bore  the  signifi 
cant  and  complimentary  designation  of  "  CROOK-NECKED  SMITH." 
He  was  so  free  in  his  opinions  on  religious  subjects,  that  some  re 
garded  his  sentiments  as  more  distorted  than  his  neck.  When  he 
went  to  Vermont,  a  son,  Joseph,  then  eight  or  ten  years  old,  ac 
companied  him.' 


64     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

notable  were  his  '  fits.' "  The  time  of  these  was  not 
in  his  senile  infirmity — described  by  an  eyewitness47 
— but  in  the  prime  of  his  manhood;  their  cause  was 
not  his  self-admitted  intoxication  as  a  sailor;  it 
was  after  he  was  injured  in  the  head,  by  the  falling 
of  a  tree  that  the  ' fits'  came.  Furthermore,  al 
though  this  affliction  of  the  grandsire  was  accidental, 
its  connection  with  the  grandson  was  not. 

The  inference  is  obvious;  Joseph  Smith,  junior, 
inherited  through  his  mother,  what  may  be  called 
for  the  present  a  liability  to  neural  instability.  So 
far  as  the  records  go,  Lucy  Mack  has  given  dispro 
portionately  fewer  details  of  her  own  state  of 
health,  than  of  her  seven  brothers  and  sisters.  She 
had  her  mental  delusions,  but  her  physical  constitu 
tion  was  strong, — judging  from  the  amount  of 
work  she  did  to  support  her  young  family.  Her 


46 « Narrative,'  pp.  10,  18: — 'I  afterwards  was  taken  with  a  fit, 
when  traveling  with  an  axe  under  my  arm  on  Winchester  hills,  the 
face  of  the  land  was  covered  with  ice.  I  was  senseless  from  one 
until  five  P.  M.  When  I  came  to  myself  I  had  my  axe  still  under 
my  arm,  I  was  all  covered  with  blood  and  much  cut  and  bruised. 
When  I  came  to  my  senses  I  could  not  tell  where  I  had  been,  nor 
where  I  was  going ;  but  by  good  luck  I  went  right  and  arrived  at 
the  first  house,  was  under  the  doctor's  care  all  the  winter.  .  .  . 
At  another  time  I  fell  in  a  fit  at  Tunbridge  [Vt.],  and  was  sup 
ported  for  the  benefit  of  my  soul  and  others.' 

47 Historical  Magazine,  November,  1870:  —  'Solomon  Mack 
...  an  infirm  old  man,  who  used  to  ride  around  on  horse 
back  on  a  side-saddle.' 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS        65 

shiftless  husband  deserves  little  notice,  except  that 
his  '  excitement  upon  the  subject  of  religion '  was 
followed  by  an  annual  vision.  Until  his  death,  at 
three  score  and  ten,  he  seems  to  have  fallen  ill  but 
twice.  Now  in  any  hunt  for  neuropathic  antece 
dents,  it  is  alleged  that  the  collaterals  are  of  import 
ance,  especially  on  the  female  side.  It  is,  then, 
significant  that  Joseph's  uncles  were  robust  men, 
but  that  his  aunts  were  a  morbid  and  unhealthy  lot. 
Lovisa  Mack,  'cured  by  a  mericle,'  died  two  years 
after  of  consumption;  Lovina  succumbed  to  the 
same  disease,  after  lingering  three  years. 

Coming  down  to  the  third  generation,  Lucy 
Mack  Smith's  ten  children  ran  the  usual  gauntlet  of 
juvenile  ailments.  There  are  but  too  exceptions: 
Sophronia  recovered  of  a  '  typhus,  through  prayer ' ; 
the  first-born,  Alvin,  was  '  murdered '  by  a  doctor 
through  an  overdose  of  calomel.  Concerning  the 
ailments  of  the  incipient  prophet  no  details  are 
omitted,  and  it  is  in  giving  these  that  the  mater- 
familias  inadvertently  lets  go  the  truth.  In  describ 
ing  the  boy's  nervous  disposition,  and  the  ravages 
of  an  infectious  fever  at  the  age  of  six,  and  also 
the  ancestral  ulceration  calling  for  a  painful  surgical 
operation,  most  pluckily  borne,  the  fond  mother  piles 
up  the  preconditions  for  that  'strange  and  unusual' 
something  which  afflicted  her  offspring.  Besides 
the  remote  causes,  the  exciting  causes  of  the 


66     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

seizures  were  equally  marked.  Chronic  religious 
excitement  at  the  age  of  fourteen  was  brought  to  a 
head  by  a  bad  fright  from  the  discharge  of  a  gun, 
and  this  was  followed  by  what  was  known  as 
Joseph's  first  vision. 

Taken  by  itself  this  initial  abnormality  may  be 
attributed  to  a  sense  illusion,  such  as  affected  the 
grandfather.  But  the  second  vision  demands  more 
specific  description,  and  also  a  more  specific  exci 
ting  cause.  The  latter  has  been  supplied  by  the 
prophet  himself  in  a  suspiciously  enigmatic  form. 
What  took  place  between  the  first  and  second 
visions  was  described  by  Joseph  as  the  '  weakness 
of  youth,  foolish  errors,  divers  temptations  and 
gratifications  of  appetites  offensive  in  the  sight  of 
God.'  Stripped  of  verbiage  this  means,  for  one 
thing, — drunkenness.  Concerning  this  unpleasant 
fact  no  reliance  is  to  be  placed  in  the  multiplied 
affidavits  of  jealous  neighbors,  who  swore  on  oath 
that  there  was  much  intoxication  among  the 
Smiths;  people  in  those  days  had  the  affidavit 
habit.  The  sources  here  used  are  provided  by  the 
Saints.  Martin  Harris  one  time  said  that,  '  Brother 
Joseph  drank  too  much  liquor  while  translating  the 
Book  of  Mormon '  ;  upon  pressure  from  the  church 
council,  he  modified  this  charge  to  the  assertion  that 
'this  thing  occurred  previous  to  the  translating.'48 

48 '  Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  992. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         67 

For  this  statement  the  Mormon  Thersites  was  rep 
rimanded,  yet  his  evidence  was  not  quashed. 
But  the  most  pertinent  item  is  to  be  found  in  an 
early  apologetic,49  which  was  naturally  suppressed 
for  its  ingenuousness;  the  author  grants  that  the 
prophet  was  intoxicated  twice,  but  asks  the  reader 
if  he  would  have  done  any  better, — if  he  had  lived 
in  those  bibulous  days.  This  acknowledgment  has 
much  to  do  with  the  case,— alcoholism  is  first  in  the 

<9  Charles  Thompson,  '  Evidences  in  Proof  of  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon,'  Batavia,  New  York,  1841.  ('  Brigham  Young  called  in  all 
the  copies  that  the  Saints  hid.'  Mrs.  Pond,  Nauvoo,  Illinois, 
May,  1887. — Pencil  note  on  fly  leaf).  Pp.  184-5  :  '  To  what  extent 
was  he  intemperate  ?  D.  P.  Hurlburt  obtained  upwards  of  eighty 
names  in  Ontario  County,  signed  to  documents  against  Smith's 
character,  and  published  in  "  Mormonism  Unveiled,"  and  yet  but 
bare  two  instances  could  all  these  men  name  where  they  saw  him 
intoxicated ;  and  even  then,  he  was  capable  of  attending  to  his 
own  business.  And  now  I  ask,  who  there  is  that  has  lived  thirty 
years  in  this  world  and  at  a  time  when  it  was  fashionable  for  all 
people  to  make  use  of  ardent-  spirits  as  a  beverage,  and  have  not 
as  much  as  twice  drank  too  much  ?  But  it  is  said  that  "  he  was 
quarrelsome  when  intoxicated."  Well,  this  is  not  very  strange.' 

The  following  statement  is  conveniently  definite,  but  is  the  sort  of 
testimony  to  be  especially  avoided.  Some  uncritical  reviewer  in  the 
Inter  Ocean,  March,  12,  1899,  quotes  L.  B.  Cake,  'Old  Mormon 
Manuscript  Found — Peep  Stone  Joe  exposed,'  New  York,  1899:— 
«  Reed  Peek  who  was  an  officer  of  the  Danite  Band,  who  delivered 
Joe  Smith  over  to  the  state  troops  just  in  time  to  avert  a  bloody 
battle  narrates  :  "  September  21,  1823,  Joe  is  drunk.  He  claims  God 
sent  an  angel  to  him  that  day,  while  he  was  in  bed,  and  the  angel 
makes  revelations  about  the  plates.  Next  morning,  September 
22,  he  goes  to  the  hill  of  Cumorah,  finds  the  stone  box,  looks  at  the 
gold  plates,  sees  the  angel,  has  a  struggle  with  imps  of  the  air."  ' 


68      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

list  of  causes  prevocative  to  those  seizures  which 
afflicted  Joseph. 

But  briefly  to  interpret  the  first  two  visions. 
They  may  be  put  in  psycho-physical  terms,  for 
the  apparent  objective  manifestations  were  ac 
tually  subjective  symptoms.  It  bespeaks  a  good 
memory  on  the  part  of  Smith,  that  the  theophanic 
portions  of  his  visions  are  precisely  what  occur  in  a 
certain  form  of  visual  disturbance  akin  to  vertigo. 
The  parallel  is  exact  in  both  the  variety  and  the 
sequence  of  the  phenomena.  It  is  told  how  a 
patient,  experiencing  this  symptom  for  the  first 
time,  describes  it  as  a  dimness  or  blindness, 
followed  by  a  dazzling  comparable  to  that  of  the 
sun.  A  second  time — as  in  the  second  vision — a 
more  exact  description  is  given: — 'the  luminous 
ball  of  fire  enlarges;  its  centre  becomes  obscure; 
gradually  it  passes  beyond  the  limits  of  the  visual 
field  above  and  below,  and  the  patient  sees  only  a 
portion  of  it,  in  the  form  of  a  broken  luminous  line, 
which  continues  to  vibrate  until  it  has  entirely  dis 
appeared.' 

Up  to  this  point,  Joseph's  first  two  visions  may  be 
put  in  the  technical  terms  of  ophthalmic  migraine. 
Further  explanation  is  needed  of  his  additional 
statements  that  '  I  was  seized  upon  by  some 
power  .  .  .  as  to  bind  my  tongue.  ...  I 
was  ready  to  sink  into  despair.  ...  I  saw  two 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         69 

personages  .  .  .  one  of  them  spake  unto  me.' 
It  may  be  said  that  these  phrases  are  the  prophet's 
way  of  stating  the  symptoms  of  a  certain  form  of 
melancholic  depression; — in  this  the  patient  mani 
fests  a  sudden  terror,  violent  palpitations  of  the 
heart,  difficulty  in  breathing  and,  along  with  these 
physical  indications,  hallucinations  of  seeing  faces 
and  hearing  voices.  No  small  psychological  interest 
lies  in  Joseph's  luminous  phantasms  and  in  the  ap 
paritions  of  known  or  imaginary  beings,  with 
whom  converse  was  held.  There  are  examples 
from  Mohammed  to  Swedenborg  of  persons,  who 
have  similarly  taken  themselves  for  prophets,  have 
conversed  with  the  Deity,  received  predictions  and 
commandments.  But  with  the  latter-day  prophet 
the  hallucinatory  progression  is  more  complex  and 
more  serious.  The  thrice-repeated  vision  of  glory  is 
succeeded  by  terrifying  visions  and  the  delirium  of 
persecution.  His  father  said  that  Joseph  heard  the 
devils  shriek  and  felt  their  blows;  his  mother  reports 
that  the  very  angel  of  light  turned  and  chastised 
him. 

Thurlow  Weed,  when  first  Joseph  submitted  to 
him  the  Book  of  Mormon,  said  that  he  was  either 
crazy  or  a  very  shallow  impostor.  There  is  no  call 
for  so  harsh  a  judgment:  the  visionary  seizures 
were  not  consequent  on  dementia,  nor  were  they 
feigned.  There  is  a  truer  and,  at  the  same  time, 


70     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

more  charitable  explanation, — it  is,  in  a  word,  that 
1  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  was  an  epileptic.  Previous 
non-discovery  of  this  condition  is  no  disproof  of  its 
validity.  The  boy's  parents  were  entirely  ignorant 
of  natural  causes :  his  father  believed  in  witchcraft, 
his  mother  was  more  conversant  with  demons  than 
with  diseases.  For  all  that,  both  suspected  that 
something  was  the  matter.  In  the  third  visitation, 
Joseph's  pallor  and  his  vacant  expression  attracted 
the  attention  of  his  father.  After  the  sixth  visita 
tion,  from  which  he  returned  home  exhausted  and 
speechless,  his  mother  admitted:  'We  always  had 
a  peculiar  anxiety  about  him  whenever  he  was 
absent,  for  it  seemed  as  though  something  was 
always  taking  place  to  jeopardize  his  life.'  The 
mother  also  said  she  had  '  learned  to  be  a  little 
cautious  about  matters  in  regard  to  Joseph,'  but  the 
father  was  persistently  credulous;  in  the  last  vision, 
when  Joseph  was  knocked  down  by  assassins,  he 
'went  in  pursuit  of  those  villains.' 

Steeped  in  ignorance  and  superstition,  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  the  parents  could  diagnose  the 
case.  It  required  keener  eyes  than  theirs  to  locate 
the  trouble,  inasmuch  as  veritable  epileptic  fits  may 
be  so  slight  and  transitory,  that  bystanders  do  not 
notice  them,  and  the  patient  himself  underrates 
them.  Moreover  in  Joseph's  case  there  was  a 
special  limitation:  with  but  one  exception,  his 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS        71 

'visits  from  the  angels'  took  place  away  from 
observation,— at  night,  or  far  from  home.  Yet 
the  very  fact  that  the  first  seizures  were  nocturnal, 
and  that  the  severest  attacks  occurred  in  his  all-day 
wanderings,  furnish  cumulative  evidence  of  true 
epileptic  convulsions.  In  the  flight  of  epileptics,  it 
is  asserted,  the  patient  hastily  leaves  his  domicile 
and  commits  acts  which  are  often  strange  and  inco 
herent.  So  here:  Joseph  is  away  all  day,  on  return 
ing  he  gives  fanciful  explanations  of  his  self-inflicted 
injuries.  While  at  the  hill  Cumorah,  hunting  for 
the  gold  plates,  he  is  hurled  back  upon  the  ground, 
or  chastised  by  an  angel,  or  assaulted  by  assassins. 
He  returns  home,  late  at  night,  exhausted  or 
speechless  with  fright,  with  a  bruised  body  or  a 
dislocated  thumb.50  This  violent  flexure  of  the 


60  For  legendary  accretions  compare  'Times  and  Seasons,'  5. 
635 : — < Joseph  Smith  was  knocked  down  by  a  handspike  near 
the  hill  Cumorah;'  also,  «  The  Martyrs,'  p.  15: — 'As  Joseph 
stood  by  the  sacred  deposit  "  gazing  and  admiring,  the  angel  said, 
'Look!'  And  as  he  thus  spake,  he  beheld  the  Prince  of  Dark 
ness,  surrounded  by  his  innumerable  train  of  associates.  All  this 
passed  before  him,  and  the  heavenly  messenger  said,  '  All  this  is 
shown,  the  good  and  the  evil,  the  holy  and  impure,  the  glory  of 
God,  and  the  power  of  darkness,  that  you  may  know  hereafter  the 
two  powers,  and  never  be  influenced  or  overcome  by  the  wicked 
one.  Behold,  whatsoever  enticeth  and  leadeth  to  good  and  to  do 
good  is  of  God,  and  whatsoever  doth  not  is  of  that  wicked  one.  It 
is  he  that  filleth  the  hearts  of  men  with  evil,  to  walk  in  darkness 
and  blaspheme  God ;  and  you  may  learn  from  henceforth  that  his 
ways  are  to  destruction,  but  the  way  of  holiness  is  peace  and  rest 


72     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

thumb  into  the  palm  is  one  of  those  seemingly  tri 
fling  symptoms,  which — occurring  paroxysmally — 
are  said  to  deserve  careful  analysis. 

But  to  pass  on  to  the  more  obvious  things.  The 
abrupt  onsets  described  by  mother  Smith  are  vari 
ously  connected  with  bodily  injury,  loss  of  con 
sciousness  and  protracted  stupor.  On  the  contrary 
the  first  two  visions,  as  described  by  the  prophet,  are 
little  more  than  psychic  paroxysms.  Was  there  any 
ulterior  motive  behind  this  limitation  ?  Granting 
that  Joseph  did  not  manage  to  forget  what  was  best 
to  forget  and  that  '  in  later  life  he  believed  what  he 
asserted,'51  the  visions,  as  they  stand,  furnish  evi 
dence  of  epilepsy.  The  first,  as  a  sensorial  migraine, 
may  be  considered  the  equivalent  of  a  convulsive 
paroxysm;  while  the  second,  which  followed  in 
toxication,  furnishes  just  those  symptoms  pre 
monitory  of  the  real  seizure  next  day.  In  the  night 
the  boy  had  a  sense-illusion  of  dazzling  flame  and 
consuming  fire;  the  next  morning  he  found  his 
strength  exhausted,  and,  starting  to  cross  a  fence, 
fell  helpless  to  the  ground  and  for  a  time  was  quite 
unconscious  of  anything.  In  recounting  the  all- 
night  interview  with  the  angel,  the  narrator  fur- 

You  cannot,  at  this  time,  obtain  this  record,  for  the  commandment 
of  God  is  strict,  and  if  ever  these  sacred  things  are  obtained,  they 
must  be  by  prayer  and  faithfulness  in  obeying  the  Lord." 
51  G.  Q.  Cannon,  «  Life  of  Joseph  Smith,'  p.  335. 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         73 

nishes  the  very  sensation  warnings  of  epilepsy;  it 
remains  for  his  mother  to  supply  the  further  tell-tale 
particulars.  It  is  more  than  a  coincidence  that  the 
boy's  strange  actions,  while  working  in  the  field, 
precisely  correspond  to  one  of  those  epileptic 
attacks  designated  vacuity.52  Elsewhere  is  given  a 
fuller  examination  of  the  rest  of  Joseph's  seizures.53 
The  psychic  premonitions  and  the  physical  after 
effects,  from  the  delirium  of  persecution  to  the  dis 
location  of  the  thumb, — all  are  accounted  for  under 
the  supposition  of  epilepsy.  It  is  no  forced  analogy; 
the  details  attach  themselves  to  the  scheme  as  natur 
ally  as  barnacles  to  a  rock. 

To  explain  Joseph's  more  abnormal  experiences, 
one  must  rest  content  with  epilepsy  as  a  working 
hypothesis.  Yet,  as  such,  it  binds  together  a  further 
series  of  otherwise  irrelated  facts:  through  it  both 
ancestry  and  progeny  fall  in  line.  Looking  back 
ward  to  the  first  generation  there  is  antecedent 
probability  in  the  grandfather's  '  fits '  on  Winchester 
Hills;  looking  forward  there  is  corroboration  in  the 

s'  According  to  Dutil, « Traite  de  Medecine,'  this  attack  is  limited 
to  loss  of  consciousness  with  temporary  pallor.  <  Immovable,  with 
his  eyes  fixed,  and  a  strange  air,  he  remains  as  if  unconscious,  see 
ing  nothing,  hearing  nothing,  in  a  sort  of  ecstasy.  It  all  lasts  only 
several  seconds.  The  patient  shortly  returns  to  himself,  takes  up 
the  conversation  at  the  point  where  he  had  left  off  or  returns  to  his 
work.' 

63  See  Appendix  II. 


74     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

circumstance  that  'fits'  have  reappeared  in  the  fifth 
generation.  But  confining  attention  to  the  life  of 
the  prophet:  although  he  stood  midway  in  the 
atavistic  line  of  neuropathies,  that  was  no  bar  to 
later  health  and  strength.  The  long  intervals  be 
tween  his  seizures,  and  their  cessation  at  about 
twenty-one,  point  to  one  of  the  more  favored  cases 
of  spontaneous  cure.  Of  his  mental  robustness  the 
same  may  be  said.  It  is  going  too  high  to  cite  the 
tradition  of  epileptics  such  as  Caesar  and  Napoleon, 
since  epilepsy  vulgarly  and  commonly  may  exist  in 
an  absolutely  healthy  state  of  mind.  Contrary  to 
the  opinion  of  some  alienists,  there  is  statistical  proof 
that  epilepsy  does  not  always  lead  to  mental  dis 
orders.  So  on  the  one  hand,  the  attenuated  form 
of  Joseph's  case  and  the  infrequency  of  his  youth 
ful  attacks,  and  on  the  other  his  many  successful 
enterprises,  especially  the  management  of  his  can 
tankerous  followers,  preclude  the  idea  of  absolute 
mental  deterioration. 

As  to  moral  deterioration  the  psychologist  is  not 
obliged  to  pass  judgment,  except  to  note  that  the 
psychiatric  definition  of  the  epileptic  fits  the  prophet 
to  a  dot.5*  Yet  this  one  persistent  mental  trait  should 


M  Compare  R.  V.  Krafft-Ebing,  '  Psychiatric,'  1897,  s-  47° : 
•  Armen  Epileptiker,  welche  das  Gebetbuch  in  der  Tasche,  den 
lieben  Gott  auf  der  Zunge  und  den  Ausbund  von  Canaillerie  im 
Leibe  tragen.'  (Saint.) 


ENVIRONMENT  AND  VISIONS         75 

be  noted:  in  youth  Joseph  was  secretive  and  dis 
trustful,  after  the  first  impulsive  delirium  at  Cu- 
morah  he  spoke  of  'the  necessity  of  suppressing 
these  things ' ; 55  in  maturity  he  said  '  no  man  knows 
my  history;  I  cannot  tell  it.'56  In  the  same  way 
there  is  psychological  connection  between  his  early 
emotional  instability  and  those  private  practices 
which  led  up  to  the  '  Revelation  on  the  Eternity  of 
the  Marriage  Covenant,  Including  the  Plurality  of 
Wives.'  But  not  to  peer  into  this  murky  and  dis 
agreeable  corner  of  his  character,  it  remains  to  be 
said  that  the  words  of  his  friends  speak  louder  than 
his  own  actions,  that  his  self-disclosures  are  not  so 
damaging  as  the  apologies  of  his  followers.  Thus 
his  ever-faithful  scribe  Cowdery  says:  'While 
young,  I  have  been  informed,  he  was  afflicted  with 
sickness.  .  .  .  You  will  remember  that  I  said 
two  invisible  powers  were  operating  upon  the  mind 
of  our  brother  while  going  to  Cumorah.  In  this, 
then,  I  discover  wisdom  in  the  dealings  of  the  Lord: 
it  was  impossible  for  any  man  to  translate  the  Book 
of  Mormon  by  the  gift  of  God,  and  endure  the  afflic 
tions,  the  temptations  and  devices  of  Satan,  with 
out  being  overthrown,  unless  he  had  been  previously 
benefited  with  a  certain  round  of  experience.' 
But  to  leave  this  anatomy  of  melancholy  and  turn 

65 «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  84. 
66  •  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  617. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

to  a  less  irksome  task, — the  Book  of  Mormon,  its 
documents,  its  sources,  and  its  author's  mentality. 

lA**** 

To  one  who  has  waded  through  this  sea  of  swash 
there  will  occur  the  words  of  Doctor  Johnson  con 
cerning  young  Chatterton,  'This  is  the  most  ex 
traordinary  young  man  that  has  encountered  my 
knowledge.  It  is  wonderful  how  the  whelp  has 
written  such  things.' 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  :    THE  DOCUMENTS 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON:  THE  DOCUMENTS 

THE  Book  of  Mormon  is  unique  in  Americana. 
John  Eliot  translated  a  bible  for  the  Indians,  Joseph 
Smith  translated  a  bible  of  the  Indians.  In  assert 
ing  their  belief  that  this  '  record  of  the  forefathers 
of  our  western  tribes'1  was  'filled  with  Egyptian 
characters  and  hieroglyphics,'2  the  Mormons  have 
offered  a  regular  psychological  puzzle  in  credulity. 
Yet  the  nut  is  not  so  hard  to  crack  by  literary 
methods,  and  the  fiction  is  mixed  with  enough  fact 
to  warrant  study. 

The  problem  of  the  original  materials  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon  has  two  aspects:  one  theoretical,  as  to 
the  '  gold  plates,'  the  other  practical,  as  to  the  state 
of  the  extant  manuscripts.  The  Mormons  still  pro- 

i«  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  707. 

8  Orson  Pratt,  «  Remarkable  Visions,'  title  page.  Pratt's  mental 
calibre  is  shown  by  his  attempts  at  '  fonetik  refawrm.'  Compare  : 
— •  The  Deseret  Second  Book,  by  the  Regents  of  the  Deseret  Uni 
versity.  Printed  in  the  Deseret  alphabet,  invented  by  Orson  Pratt 
and  W.  W.  Phelps,  to  be  used  in  the  Mormon  Literature.'  74  pp. 
1868. 

79 


8o     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

fess  belief  in  the  actuality  of  the  plates,  written,  as 
they  say,  by  the  hand  of  Mormon,  about  300  A.  D.  ; 
hid  up  in  the  hill  Cumorah  in  New  York  State  and 
found  by  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  in  these  latter  days.8 
To  account  for  the  final  disappearance  of  these  '  en 
gravings  of  old  records  which  are  ancient/  they 
have  evolved  a  theory  of  levitation.*  The  so-called 
transcription  of  the  alleged  gold  plates  is  still  in  ex 
istence.5  It  is  proved  the  authentic  document  from 
a  comparison  with  the  characteristic  signature  of 
Joseph  Smith,  junior,8  and  also  from  the  directness 
of  transmission.  It  was  long  in  the  possession  of 
David  Whitmer,7  the  second  of  the  three  witnesses 

3  The  apologetic  works  on  the  '  Divine  Authenticity  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon '  are  endless.  The  most  characteristic  are  Orson 
Pratt's  'Remarkable  Visions,'  1841;  Thompson's  'Evidences,' 
1841;  Reynolds'  'The  Story  of  the  Book  of  Mormon/  1888; 
James  E.  Talmage,  '  Divinity  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,'  1901. 

'While  in  Salt  Lake  City  in  June,  1894,  I  heard  of  some  alleged 
squeezes  of  the  gold  plates.  On  inquiry  at  the  Deseret  Museum,  a 
curator  informed  me  they  had  been  « levitated.'  I  asked  him  how 
he  believed  that.  He  replied,  «  By  faith.' 

6  In  the  possession  of  Mr.  William  Evarts  Benjamin,  of  New 
York  City,  through  whose  courtesy  I  am  enabled  to  present  a  photo 
graphic  reproduction,  reduced  by  one-fourth. 

6  As  shown  in  the  following  document,  also  in  the  possession  of 
Mr.  Benjamin  :  '  License  issued  to  Christian  Whitmer,  signifying 
and  proveing  that  he  is  a  Teacher  of  this  Church  of  Christ.  [Signed] 
Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  first  elder;  Oliver  Cowdery,  second  elder. 
Fayette,  N.  Y.,  June  9th,  1830.' 

'  David  Whitmer,  «  Address,'  1887,  P-  *  '• — '  J  have  in  mX  posses 
sion  the  original  paper  containing  some  of  the  characters  tran 
scribed  from  one  of  the  golden  plates,  which  paper  Martin  Harris 


>•    N 

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THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  81 

to  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  from  him  passed  to  his 
grandson.8 

On  the  opposite  page  there  is  given  a  photo 
graphic  reproduction  of  the  '  Caractors '  as  curiously 
written  by  young  Smith.  He  says  that,  in  Decem 
ber,  1827,  he  commenced  copying  the  characters  of 
the  plates,  and  by  means  of  the  Urim  and  Thum- 
min  he  translated  some  of  them.9  Their  genesis  is 
thus  given  by  the  prophet's  mother :  '  After  bringing 
home  the  plates  .  .  .  Joseph  began  to  make 
arrangements  to  accomplish  the  translation  of  the 
Record.  The  first  step  that  he  was  instructed  to 
take  in  regard  to  this  work,  was  to  make  a  fac 
simile  of  some  of  the  characters,  which  were  called 
reformed  Egyptian,  and  to  send  them  to  some  of 
the  most  learned  men  of  this  generation  and  ask 
them  for  the  translation  thereof.'10  The  'facsimile' 
was  first  submitted  to  a  local  pundit,  by  Martin 
Harris,  Joseph's  financial  backer;  the  former  de 
scribed  it  as  'a  slip  of  paper  which  contained  three 
or  four  lines  of  characters,  as  unlike  letters  or 

took  to  Professor  Anthon,  of  New  York,  for  him  to  read  "  the  words 
of  a  book  that  is  sealed"  ' 

8  Mr.  George  W.  Schweich,  of  Richmond,  Missouri,  writing, 
March  7,  1899,  described  the  slip  of  paper  containing  the  '  carac- 
tors '  as  « the  supposed  or  alleged  transcription  or  tracing  taken  by 
Martin  Harris  to  Professor  Anthon,  of  Amherst  College,  from  the 
gold  plates  then  in  the  hands  of  the  promoters.' 

» «  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  103. 

i° « Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  107,  109. 


82      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

hieroglyphics  of  any  sort  as  well  could  be  produced 
were  one  to  shut  up  his  eyes  and  play  off  the  most 
antic  movements  with  his  pen  upon  paper.'11  In 
February,  1828,  Harris  took  a  secondary  copy  of 
this  document  to  Professor  Anthon  of  New  York 
city.12  He  pronounced  it  '  a  singular  scroll.  It  con 
sisted  of  all  kinds  of  crooked  characters,  disposed 
in  columns,  and  had  evidently  been  prepared  by 
some  person  who  had  before  him  at  the  time  a  book 
containing  various  alphabets.  Greek  and  Hebrew 
letters,  crosses  and  flourishes,  Roman  letters,  in 
verted  or  placed  sideways,  were  arranged  and 
placed  in  perpendicular  columns.'18 

11 J.  A.  Clark,  then  at  Palmyra,  N.  Y.  His  book  «  Gleanings  by 
the  Way '  gives  one  of  the  few  reliable  early  accounts  of  Mor- 
monism. 

18 «  Biographical  Sketches/  pp.  107,  109. 

13  Letter  of  February  17,  1834,  in  New  York  Independent.  In  a 
letter  of  April  3,  1841,  in  the  Church  Record,  Professor  Anthon  said 
that  the  characters  were  a  '  singular  medley  of  Greek,  Hebrew  and 
all  sorts  of  letters,  more  or  less  distorted  either  through  unskilful- 
ness  or  design,  and  intermingled  with  sundry  delineations  of  half- 
moons,  stars  and  other  natural  objects  and  the  whole  ending  in  a 
rude  representation  of  the  Mexican  Zodiac,  evidently  copied  from 
Humboldt,  but  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  betray  the  source.'  Note 
that  this  tail  piece  belonged  to  a  secondary  copy  which  is  thus  de 
scribed  in  Mormon  fashion  by  F.  G.  Bishop, « Address,'  p.  48 : — « The 
characters  on  these  plates,  as  seen  through  the  Interpreters,  have 
the  appearance  of  Hieroglyphics,  or  something  resembling  pictures 
of  a  great  variety  of  shapes.  On  the  last  plate  is  a  circle  with  rays 
proceeding  from  it  resembling  the  sun,  as  commonly  sketched,  and 
around  this  circle  are  twenty-four  circles  more  composed  of  figures 
resembling  stars  and  half-moons.' 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  83 

A  garbled  account  of  this  interview  was  after 
wards  published  by  the  prophet.14  In  this  the  scholar 
is  made  to  assert  that  the  untranslated  characters 
from  the  plates  were  Egyptian,  Chaldaic,  Assyriac 
and  Arabic,  but  that  he  could  not  read  that  part  of 

14 '  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  pp.  103-4.  «  Some  time  in  this  month 
of  February,  the  aforementioned  Mr.  Martin  Harris  came  to  our 
place,  got  the  characters  which  I  had  drawn  off  the  plates,  and 
started  with  them  to  the  city  of  New  York.  For  what  took  place 
relative  to  him  and  the  characters,  I  refer  to  his  own  account  of 
the  circumstances  as  he  related  them  to  me  after  his  return,  which 
was  as  follows : 

I  went  to  the  city  of  New  York,  and  presented  the  characters 
which  had  been  translated,  with  the  translation  thereof,  to  Pro 
fessor  Anthon,  a  gentleman  celebrated  for  his  literary  attainments. 
Professor  Anthon  stated  that  the  translation  was  correct,  more  so 
than  any  he  had  before  seen  translated  from  the  Egyptian.  I  then 
showed  him  those  which  were  not  yet  translated,  and  he  said  that 
they  were  Egyptian,  Chaldaic,  Assyriac,  and  Arabic,  and  he  said 
that  they  were  the  true  characters.  He  gave  me  a  certificate, 
certifying  to  the  people  of  Palmyra  that  they  were  true  characters, 
and  that  the  translation  of  such  of  them  as  had  been  translated 
was  also  correct.  I  took  the  certificate  and  put  it  into  my  pocket, 
and  was  just  leaving  the  house,  when  Mr.  Anthon  called  me  back, 
and  asked  me  how  the  young  man  found  out  that  there  were  gold 
plates  in  the  place  where  he  found  them.  I  answered  that  an 
angel  of  God  had  revealed  it  unto  him. 

He  then  said  unto  me,  "  Let  me  see  that  certificate."  I  accord 
ingly  took  it  out  of  my  pocket  and  gave  it  to  him,  when  he  took  it 
and  tore  it  to  pieces,  saying  that  there  was  no  such  thing  now  as 
ministering  of  angels,  and  that  if  I  would  bring  the  plates  to  him, 
he  would  translate  them.  I  informed  him  that  part  of  the  plates 
were  sealed,  and  that  I  was  forbidden  to  bring  them ;  he  replied, 
"  I  cannot  read  a  sealed  book."  I  left  him  and  went  to  Dr. 
Mitchell,  who  sanctioned  what  Professor  Anthon  had  said  respect 
ing  both  the  characters  and  the  translation.1 


84     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

the  plates  which  was  sealed,  thus  fulfilling  the 
prophecy  of  Isaiah,  that  the  learned  could  not  read 
the  words  of  a  book  that  was  sealed.15 

At  the  time,  young  Smith  doubtless  believed  in 
the  supernatural  origin  of  his  transcript.  The  reason 
for  this  was  that  it  was  written  under  more  or  less 
unconscious  conditions.  The  man  who  first  saw  it 
almost  hit  the  nail  on  the  head  when  he  said  such 
characters  could  be  produced  if  one  were  to  shut  up 
his  eyes.  As  will  be  seen,  the  paper  bears  marks 
of  being  written  under  the  influence  of  veritable 
crystal  gazing.  In  that  self-induced,  trance-like 
state  Joseph's  involuntary  scratchings  would  appear 
to  him  occult,  mysterious,  true  revelations  from 
heaven.  For  a  scientific  explanation  of  the  matter 
there  is  no  need  to  call  in  the  activities  of  a  'second 
personality,'16  but  merely  those  of  the  subconscious 
self.  The  scrawl  is  analogous  to  the  scribblings 
of  the  undeveloped  automatically-writing  hand,17 

16  <  Whitmer  Address,'  p.  n. 

16 Proceedings  of  the  'Society  for  Psychical  Research,'  12,  318. 
1  The  bulk  of  automatic  writings,  including  the  first  scrawls  of  the 
planchette,  are  not  indications  of  the  formation  of  the  second  per 
sonality.' 

17  Taine,  '  De  1'  Intelligence,'  third  edition,  pp.  16,  17,  cites  the 
case  of  a  woman  who,  while  conversing,  wrote  with  a  handwriting 
different  from  ordinary  style ;  the  fingers  were  stiff,  the  movement 
automatic ;  the  writing  finished  with  the  signature  of  a  deceased 
person  and  bore  the  impress  of  secret  thoughts, — of  a  mental  back 
ground  which  the  author  was  not  inclined  to  divulge. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  85 

such  as  is  found  even  among  the  uncivilized.18  If 
the  ultimate  solution  of  this  document  is  a  problem 
for  abnormal  psychology,  its  make  up  is  no  great 
mystery.  As  the  contents  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
can  be  traced  to  indigenous  sources— the  ideas 
which  Joseph  picked  up  in  the  Indian  country  where 
he  lived — so  it  is  with  these  characters.  The  more 
elaborate  resemble  the  picture  writing  of  the  aborig 
ines,  such  as  would  interest  a  boy.19  It  is  going 
too  far  to  hunt  for  Greek  and  Hebrew  letters,  for 
the  tables  of  foreign  alphabets  had  not  yet  appeared 
in  current  dictionaries.10  The  job  is  home-made: 
if  Joseph  had  not  taken  the  matter  so  seriously,  this 
might  be  considered  an  amusing  burlesque  on  a 
farmer's  almanac,  for  he  has  only  half  concealed  the 
signs  of  the  Zodiac  and  those  cabalistic  aspects  and 
nodes  which  may  go  with  the  planting  of  potatoes. 
That  which  betrays  the  puerility,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  the  genuineness  of  the  document,  is  the  curi 
ous  fact  that  the  youth's  own  name  appears  twice 
in  a  sort  of  cryptogram.  His  neighbors  called  him 
'  peep-stone  Joe,'  his  mother  said  that  he  was  '  given 

w  Albert  Moll,  «  Hypnotism,'  London,  1901,  p.  267. 

19  Imitation  of  Indian  glyphics  are  also  to  be  seen  on  various 
tombstones  in  Joseph's  native  state,  commemorating  the  Indian 
raids  of  1754. 

50  Noah  Webster's  Dictionary  of  this  date  has  only  tables  of 
moneys,  weights  and  measures.  Thus  the  pound  sterling  sign  oc 
curs  in  the  top  line  of  the  '  caractors.' 


86     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

to  deep  meditation  and  study,'  he  himself  described 
his  '  Interpreters '  as  crystals, — all  this,  taken  in  con 
nection  with  his  manner  of  'translating,'  furnish 
the  clue  to  this  original  autograph.  As  his  scribe, 
Martin  Harris,  affirmed:  '  Brother  Joseph  knew  not 
the  contents  of  the  Booh  of  Mormon  until  it  was 
translated.' sl  As  is  elsewhere  shown,  Joseph's  con 
dition,  under  the  influence  of  his  '  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim,'  was  semi-hypnotic."  Now  it  is  a  common 
place  of  experiment  that  while  in  this  state,  which 
is  hardly  more  than  reverie,  the  subject  often  writes 
back-handed,  or  backwards,  or  even  left-handed 
with  the  right  hand.13  Now  if  the  transcription  be 
turned  over  and  read  through  from  the  back  there 
may  be  deciphered  towards  the  right  end  of  the  third 
line,  below  '  Caractors,'  first,  the  letters  JOE,  back 
hand  and  rather  indistinct;  and,  second,  the  letters 


91 « Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  992. 

8*  The  only  previous  suggestion  of  this  has  been  put  in  terms  of 
clairvoyance ;  it  is  that  « Joseph  gazed  upon  that  Urim  and  Thum- 
mim  until  his  mind  became  psychologized,  and  the  impressions  that 
he  received  he  dictated  to  his  scribe.'  T.  B.  H.  Stenhouse,  «  Rocky 
Mountain  Saints,'  p.  551.  This  book  is  the  most  suggestive  of  any 
of  the  works  of  apostates.  Stenhouse  had  lived  abroad  but  evi 
dently  knew  nothing  of  the  continental  psychology.  Compare  his 
works  written  before  he  left  the  church :  La  Rlflecteur,  a  Mor 
mon  paper,  published  at  Geneva,  and,  « Les  Mormons  et  leurs 
Ennemis,'  at  Lausanne. 

9»  Compare  Binet  and  Fere,  « Animal  Magnetism,'  New  York, 
1898,  figures  13  and  14,  p.  298. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  87 

S  O  J,  more  upright  and  better  formed.24  In  other 
words,  the  youth,  without  knowing  it,  wrote  his 
nickname  entire  and  half  of  his  given  name  in  reverse, 
That  unconscious  cerebration  played  a  large  part 
in  the  evolving  of  the  gold  plate  scheme  is  not 
improbable.  The  youthful  prophet's  self-obfusti- 
cation  is  likely  from  an  antecedent  heritage  of 
credulity.  There  may  not  have  been  continuous 
faith  in  his  continuous  revelations,  but  there  was, 
throughout  his  life,  a  naive  confidence  in  his  own 
learning.  As  Voltaire  said  of  Habbakuk,  he  was 

«  Exactly  how  this  scrawl  was  written  is  immaterial.  The 
probability  that  the  reversal  of  the  script  was  due  to  a  general  ab 
normal  condition  is  only  increased  by  the  prophet's  later  explana 
tion,  that  it  was  Hebraic  in  character.  This  was  a  clever  after 
thought,  borrowed  either  from  Sidney  Rigdon,  who  owned  a  He 
brew  Lexicon,  or  from  a  polyglot  Bible  which  Joseph  somehow  ob 
tained.  Compare  « Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  614,  also  Littlefield, 
« The  Martyrs,'  p.  21.  'In  relation  to  the  title  of  the  book,  Joseph 
says,  in  his  history :  « I  wish  to  mention  here,  that  the  title  page 
of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon  "  is  a  literal  translation,  taken  from  the 
very  last  leaf,  on  the  left-hand  side  of  the  collection  or  book  of 
plates,  which  contained  the  record  which  has  been  translated,  the 
language  of  the  whole  running  the  same  as  all  Hebrew  writing  in 
general ;  and  that  said  title  page  is  not  by  any  means  a  modern 
composition,  either  of  mine  or  any  other  man's  who  has  lived  or 
does  live  in  this  generation.  Therefore,  in  order  to  correct  an  er 
ror  which  generally  exists  concerning  it,  I  give  below  that  part  of 
the  title  page  of  the  English  version  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon  " 
which  is  a  genuine  and  literal  translation  of  the  title  page  of  the 
original  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  as  recorded  on  the  plates  — 

THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON. 

An  account  written  by  the  hand  of  Mormon,  upon  Plates^  taken 
from  the  Plates  of  Nephi? 


88     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

capable  de  tout.  In  April,  1829,  he  translated  a 
'parchment  written  and  hid  up  by  John  the  be 
loved  disciple.'25  As  soon  as  the  Booh  of  Mormon 
was  on  the  market,  he  started  on  the  Visions  of 
Moses;  six  months  later  there  were  revealed  the 
Writings  of  Moses.™  In  March,  1833,  the  prophet 
was  told  not  to  translate  the  Apocrypha,  for  it  was 
'mostly  translated  correctly.'27  In  July,  1834,  he 

««Book  of  Commandments/  Chapter  VI. 

26  *  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  pp.  1-6 ;  8-49.  In  these  curious  bib 
lical  paraphrases  Joseph  seems  dimly  to  reproduce  his  own  ab 
normal  experiences  :  «  And  it  came  to  pass  that  Moses  looked  and 
beheld  the  world  upon  which  he  was  created,  and  as  Moses  beheld 
the  world  and  the  ends  thereof,  and  all  the  children  of  men  which 
are,  and  which  were  created  of  the  same,  he  greatly  marveled  and 
wondered.  And  the  presence  of  God  withdrew  from  Moses,  that 
his  glory  was  not  upon  Moses ;  and  Moses  was  left  unto  himself. 
And  as  he  was  left  unto  himself,  he  fell  unto  the  earth.  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  it  was  for  the  space  of  many  hours  before  Moses 
did  again  receive  his  natural  strength  like  unto  man ;  and  he  said 
unto  himself,  now,  for  this  cause  I  know  that  man  is  nothing, 
which  thing  I  never  had  supposed ;  but  now  mine  eyes  have  be 
held  God;  but  not  my  natural,  but  my  spiritual  eyes,  for  my 
natural  eyes  could  not  have  beheld ;  for  I  should  have  withered 
and  died  in  his  presence ;  but  his  glory  was  upon  me ;  and  I  be 
held  his  face,  for  I  was  transfigured  before  him.' 

87 «  Revelation  given  through  Joseph,  the  Seer,  at  Kirtland,  Geauga 
County,  Ohio,  March  ()th,  1833. 

Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  you  concerning  the  Apocrypha, 
there  are  many  things  contained  therein  that  are  true,  and  it  is 
mostly  translated  correctly ; 

There  are  many  things  contained  therein  that  are  not  true,  which 
are  interpolations  by  the  hands  of  men. 

Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  it  is  not  needful  that  the  Apocrypha 
should  be  translated. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  89 

had  completed  a  '  Revised  Translation  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments ';  as  he  said:  'it  was  appar 
ent  that  many  important  points  touching  the  salva 
tion  of  man,  had  been  taken  from  the  Bible,  or  lost 
before  it  was  compiled.' 28  In  1842,  as  editor  of  the 
notable  third  volume  of  the  Times  and  Seasons,  he 
published  a  '  Translation  of  some  Ancient  Records, 
that  have  fallen  into  our  hands  from  the  Catacombs 


Therefore,  whoso  readeth  it,  let  him  understand,  for  the  Spirit 
manifesteth  truth ; 

And  whoso  is  enlightened  by  the  Spirit,  shall  obtain  benefit 
therefrom ; 

And  whoso  receiveth  not  by  the  Spirit,  cannot  be  benefited, 
therefore  it  is  not  needful  that  it  should  be  translated.  Amen.' 

28 «  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  592.  Compare  Smith's  second  Lec 
ture  on  Faith ;  «  Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  p.  13 :  — 

1  We  next  proceed  to  present  the  account  of  the  direct  revelation 
which  man  received  after  he  was  cast  out  of  Eden,  and  further 
copy  from  the  new  translation  — 

After  Adam  had  been  driven  out  of  the  garden,  he  '  began  to  till 
the  earth  and  to  have  dominion  over  all  the  beasts  of  the  field,  and 
to  eat  his  bread  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  as  I  the  Lord  had  com 
manded  him.'  And  he  called  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord,  and  so 
did  Eve,  his  wife,  also.  «  And  they  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord, 
from  the  way  towards  the  garden  of  Eden,  speaking  unto  them,  and 
they  saw  Him  not,  for  they  were  shut  out  from  His  presence ;  and 
He  gave  unto  them  commandments  that  they  should  worship  the 
Lord  their  God,  and  should  offer  the  firstlings  of  their  flocks  for  an 
offering  unto  the  Lord.  And  Adam  was  obedient  unto  the  com 
mandments  of  the  Lord. 

'And  after  many  days  an  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto 
Adam,  saying,  "  Why  dost  thou  offer  sacrifices  unto  the  Lord  ?  " 
And  Adam  said  unto  him,  "  I  know  not ;  save  the  Lord  com 
manded  me." 

« And  then  the  angel  spake,  saying,  "  This  thing  is  a  similitude 
of  the  sacrifice  of  the  Only  Begotten  of  the  Father,  who  is  full  of 
grace  and  truth.  And  thou  shalt  do  all  that  thou  doest  in  the  name 
of  the  Son,  and  thou  shalt  repent  and  call  upon  God  in  the  name 
of  the  Son  for  evermore."  And  in  that  day  the  Holy  Ghost  fell 
upon  Adam,  which  beareth  record  of  the  Father  and  the  Son.' 


90     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

of  Egypt,  the  writings  of  Abraham  while  he  was  in 
Egypt,  called  the  Book  of  Abraham,  written  by  his 
own  hand,  upon  Papyrus/29  Six  months  before  his 
death  the  prophet  said  :  '  I  combat  the  error  of 
ages  and  I  solve  mathematical  problems  of  universi 
ties  WITH  TRUTH,  diamond  truth. ' 30  On  August  2oth, 
1843,  he  told  a  visitor  at  Nauvoo  that,  relying  on 
the  'gift  of  tongues,'  he  could  '  read  Greek  as  fast 
as  a  horse  can  run.'81  Finally  he  promulgated  his 
famous  refutation  of  the  statement,  that  the  word 
Mormon  is  borrowed  from  the  Greek  word,  signify 
ing  a  bugbear  or  hobgoblin: — 

I  may  safely  say  that  the  word  Mormon 
stands  independent  of  the  learning  and  wisdom 
of  this  generation.  Before  I  give  a  definition, 
however,  to  the  word,  let  me  say  that  the  Bible 
in  its  widest  sense,  means  'good,'  for  the  Sa 
viour  says,  according  to  the  Gospel  of  St.  John, 
*I  am  the  good  shepherd,'  and  it  will  not  be 
beyond  the  common  use  of  terms  to  say  that 
good  is  amongst  the  most  important  in  use  and, 
though  known  by  various  names  in  different 
languages,  still  its  meaning  is  the  same,  and  is 
ever  in  opposition  to  bad.  We  say  from  the 
Saxon,  Good;  the  Dane,  God;  the  Goth, 
Goda;  the  German,  Gut ;  the  Dutch,  Gocd ; 

89 «  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  pp.  49-69. 
30 'Times  and  Seasons/  November  13,  1843. 
31 « Universalist  Union,'   9,  376 ;    interview  of  « W.   S.  B.'  on 
August  20th,  1843. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  91 

the  Latin,  Bonus  ;  the  Greek,  Kalos  ;  the  He 
brew,  Tob  ;  the  Egyptian,  Mon ;  hence  with 
the  addition  of  more,  or  the  contraction,  mor, 
we  have  the  word  Mormon,  which  means  liter 
ally,  more  good. ' 

To  the  followers  of  the  prophet,  all  this  was  very 
wonderful;  it  satisfied  their  greed  for  the  unknow 
able,  and  was  proof  of  the  supernaturalness  of  his 
wisdom.  To  clinch  the  matter,  the  apologists  for 
the  divine  origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  lay  stress 
on  the  author's  early  lack  of  education.  One  gives 
him  but  a  limited  understanding  of  the  three  rudi 
ments;32  another  calls  attention  to  the  misspelling  of 
the  word  '  Caractors.'33  Where  then  did  he  get  his 
esoteric  linguistics  ?  To  the  faithful  it  is  a  mystery: 
the  stream  rises  higher  than  its  sources.  It  is  here 
that  extremes  meet;  the  devout  exaggerate  their 
founder's  ignorance  to  heighten  the  wonder  of  his 
writings,  the  profane  to  prove  that  his  works  were 
another's.  Neither  considers  the  possibilities  of  his 

32  T.    Horton,   '  A  True  History,'  Geneva,  N.  Y.,   184-,  p.  3. 
<  He   could  read  without  much  difficulty,  and  write   a  very   im 
perfect  hand ;  and  had  a  very  limited  understanding  of  the  ground 
rules  of  arithmetic.' 

33  Stevenson,  «  Reminiscences,'  p.  33.    '  It  was  well  known  that 
Joseph  was  not  learned,  and  claimed  to  be  only  a  farmer's  boy  with 
out  the  opportunities  .'or  a  scholastic  education.     .     .     .     Permit 
me  to  offer  some  striking  evidence  to  show  that  the  prophet  was 
not  learned,  by  the   word   directly  over  the  lines  of  characters. 
"The  Seven  Lines  of  Characters  "  are  headed  "  Caractors."  ' 


92     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

mentality, — that  along  with  what  he  called  a  '  fear 
ful  imagination,'34  he  had  an  adhesive  memory,  and 
that  whatever  fell  in  his  way  stuck  fast.  It  is  true 
that  he  had  little  use  for  books,85  but  he  utilized 
men.  The  learning  of  his  contemporaries  was  poor 
but  he  made  it  his  own.  His  absorptive  acts  were 
many  and  various.  He  was  directed  by  revelation 
to  'study  and  learn,  and  become  acquainted  with 
all  good  books,  and  with  languages,  tongues,  and 
people.'  So  the  Visions  and  Writings  of  Moses 
came  out  with  the  appearance  on  the  scene  of  Sid 
ney  Rigdon  the  peripatetic  prodigy  of  the  Western 
Reserve.36  Again  Joseph  began  publicly  to  interpret 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  some  time  after  '  Messrs. 
Peixotto  and  Noah '  had  been  impressed  into  the 
'  department  of  Hebrew  in  the  University  of  Nau- 
voo.'37  But  in  the  biblical  tongues  he  apparently 

3<'  Times  and  Seasons/  6,  1121. 

36 Smith  read  at  least  the  following,  the  'Book  of  Martyrs,' 
«  Smith's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,'  the  '  United  States  Constitution.' 
He  also,  later,  had  access  to  his  partner  Rigdon's  library,  which 
« was  a  very  good  student's  collection,  Hebrew,  Greek  and  Latin 
lexicons  and  readers,  stray  volumes  of  Shakespeare,  Scott,  Irving's 
works  and  a  number  of  other  valuable  books.'  Overland 
Monthly,  December,  1890,  letter  of  Charlotte  Haven  fromNauvoo, 
•March  26th,  1843. 

36 'Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  39.  'A  Revelation  to 
Joseph  and  Sidney,'  December,  1830, — '  It  is  not  expedient  that 
ye  should  translate  any  more  until  ye  shall  go  to  the  Ohio.' 

37  <  Joseph  the  Seer,'  p.  84.  Compare  also  the  prospectus  in  '  Times 
and  Seasons,'  Volume  3,  where  Sidney  Rigdon  has  charge  of  the 
'  Department  of  Belles  Lettres.' 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  93 

got  no  further  than  this:  'I  will  make  a  comment 
on  the  very  first  sentence  of  the  history  of  creation 
in  the  Bible,  Berosheit.'  Finally  before  his  poly 
glot  audiences38  he  flourished  a  polyglot  Bible,  and 
'  preached  a  little  Latin,  a  little  Hebrew,  Greek  and 
German.' 89 

All  this  the  Saints  believed  came  as  the  result  of  a 
revelation  to  Joseph  to  study  the  languages.  But 
Smith's  linguistic  masterpiece  was  the  Book  of 
Abraham.  Joseph  announced  this  to  be  'a  transla 
tion  of  Some  Ancient  Records,  that  have  fallen  into 
our  hands  from  the  catacombs  of  Egypt';*0  an 
Egyptologist  pronounced  it  to  be  an  account  of  the 
Resurrection  of  Osiris."  But  the  Frenchman  took 
the  Yankee  TartufTe  more  seriously  than  he  took 
himself.  Josiah  Quincy  said  there  was  an  unmis 
takable  wink  in  Smith's  eye  after  showing  off  '  the 
Egyptian  Mummies,  and  the  autograph  of  Moses.'  *8 

38 «  Times  and  Seasons,'  2,  496 :  In  the  city  of  Nauvoo  were  to  be 
found  'the  enterprising  Englishman,  the  hardy  Scotchman,  the 
warm  hearted  son  of  Erin,  the  Pennsylvania  Dutchman,  and  the 
honest  Canadian.'  For  the  mixture  of  races  in  Mormonism  com 
pare  also  the  various  translations  of  the  <  Book  of  Mormon '  into 
French,  German,  Italian,  Spanish,  Swedish,  Welsh,  etc. 

w  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  614,  report  of  Smith's  Conference  Ser 
mon,  April,  1833. 

<° « Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  704. 

41  Jules  Remy  and  Julius  Brenchley,  « A  Journey  to  Great  Salt 
Lake  City,'  2,  536. 

48 '  Figures  of  the  Past,'  p.  384. 


94     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

It  is  a  relief  to  find  this  single  glearn  of  humor  in 
the  dreary  sketch  of  seriousness.  But  that  the 
prophet  anticipated  Artemus  Ward  in  the  show 
business  would  hardly  be  allowed  by  the  Saints.  Of 
the  evolution  of  the  Booh  of  Abraham,  *3  the  official 
Mormon  account  is  as  follows: — 'July  }d,  1835, 
Michael  H.  Chandler  came  to  Kirtland  to  exhibit 
four  Egyptian  mummies  and  two  or  more  rolls  of 
papyrus,  covered  with  hieroglyphic  figures  and 
devices.  They  were  afterwards  purchased  by  some 

« '  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  59,  gives  « a  facsimile  from  the 
"  Book  of  Abraham."  '  The  explanation  of  the  cut  shows  that  even 
Joseph's  imagination  could  suffer  from  over  straining : 

Fig.  I.  Kolob,  signifying  the  first  creation,  nearest  to  the 
celestial,  or  residence  of  God.  First  in  government,  the  last  per 
taining  to  the  measurement  of  time.  The  measurement  according 
to  celestial  time,  which  celestial  time  signifies  one  day  to  a  cubit. 
One  day,  in  Kolob,  is  equal  to  a  thousand  years,  according  to  the 
measurement  of  this  earth,  which  is  called  by  the  Egyptians  Jah- 
oh-eh. 

Fig.  5.  Is  called  in  Egyptian  Enish-go-on-dosh ;  this  is  one  of 
the  governing  planets  also,  and  is  said  by  the  Egyptians  to  be  the 
Sun,  and  to  borrow  its  light  from  Kolob  through  the  medium  of 
Kae-e-vanrash,  which  is  the  grand  Key,  or,  in  other  words  the 
governing  power,  which  governs  fifteen  other  fixed  planets  or 
stars,  as  also  Floeese  or  the  Moon,  the  Earth  and  the  sun  in  their 
annual  revolutions.  This  planet  receives  its  power  through  the 
medium  of  Kli-flos-is-es,  or  Hah-ko-kau-beam,  the  stars  represented 
by  numbers  22  and  23,  receiving  light  from  the  revolutions  of 
Kolob. 

Fig.  6.     Represents  the  earth  in  its  four  quarters. 

Fig.  7.  Represents  God  sitting  upon  his  throne  revealing 
through  the  heavens,  the  grand  Key- Words  of  the  Priesthood ;  as 
also,  the  sign  of  the  Holy  Ghost  unto  Abraham,  in  the  form  of  a 
dove. 

Fig.  8.  Contains  writing  that  cannot  be  revealed  unto  the 
world;  but  is  to  be  had  in  the  Holy  Temple  of  God. 

Fig.  9.     Ought  not  to  be  revealed  at  the  present  time. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  95 

of  the  Saints,  and  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  translated 
some  of  the  characters  on  the  rolls.  One  was  found 
to  contain  the  writings  of  Abraham,  another  the 
writings  of  Joseph  in  Egypt.'" 

To  return  to  the  writings  of  the  latter  day  Joseph 
in  America,  and  to  take  up  the  practical  question  of 
the  state  of  the  original  manuscript  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon.  The  printed  editions  furnish  no  exact 
information:  they  only  serve  to  give  a  hazy  idea  of 
the  immense  number  of  successive  corrections.  The 
Mormon  preaching  of  continuous  revelation  is  like 
the  Mormon  practice  of  continuous  emendation. 
Comparing  a  late  with  the  earliest  edition, 
two  thousand  changes  have  been  counted/5  But 
the  publishers  themselves  admit  editorial  correc 
tions.  While  the  title  page  of  the  third  edition46 
reads, — 'Carefully  revised  by  the  translator,'  the 
preface  of  the  second  edition47  is  more  frank  as  to 
the  possibility  of  variations: — 

'Individuals  acquainted  with  book  printing,  are 
aware  of  the  numerous  typographical  errors  which 
always  occur  in  manuscript  editions.  It  is  only 
necessary  to  say,  that  the  whole  has  been  carefully 
reexamined  and  compared  with  the  original  manu 
scripts,  by  elder  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  the  transla- 

441  Handbook  of  Reference,'  p.  45. 

« Lamoni  Call,  « Two  Thousand  Changes  in  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon,'  1898. 

«•  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  1840. 
41  Kirtland,  Ohio,  1837. 


96     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

tor  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  assisted  by  the  present 
printer,  brother  p.  Cowdery,  who  formerly  wrote 
the  greatest  portion  of  the  same,  as  dictated  by 
brother  Smith.'48 


There  is  further,  definite,  first-hand  information 
and  from  Mormon  sources.  The  typesetter  of  the 
first  edition  said  that  he  supplied  all  the  punctua 
tion,  but  did  not  change  the  spelling  of  more  than 
one  or  two  words.49  In  fine,  from  extant  testi 
mony,50  it  is  hard  to  show  that  the  changes  in  the 

48  Compare  also  « Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  800,  joint  letter  of  Smith, 
Rigdon  and  Williams  to  W.  W.  Phelps  June  25,  1833  : — «  As  soon 
as  we  can  get  time,  we  will  review  the  manuscripts  of  the  "  Book 
of  Mormon."  ' 

49  George  Reynolds,  <  The  Myth  of  the  Manuscript  Found,'  pp. 
58-9.     Interview  with  John  Gilbert,  March,  1881 : — « I  am  the 
party  that  set  the  type  from  the  original  manuscript  for  the  "  Book 
of  Mormon."     I  would  know  that  manuscript  to-day  if  I  should  see 
it.     The  most  of  it  was  in  Oliver  Cowdery's  handwriting.     Some 
in  Joseph's  wife's ;  a  small  part  though.     .     .     .     We  had  a  great 
deal  of  trouble  with  it.     It  was  not  punctuated  at  all.     They  did 
not  know  anything  about  punctuation,  and  we  had  to  do  that  our 
selves.    .    .    .     We  never  changed  it  in  the  least.    I  believe  that  I 
did  change  the  spelling  of  one,  and  perhaps  two  [words],  but  no  more.' 
Compare «  American  Bookseller,'  4,  617,  quoting  an  interview  in  the 
Detroit  Tribune  of  December  2,  1877,  in  which  J.  H.  Gilbert  the 
typesetter  avers  that  the  « Book  of  Mormon,'  was  written  on  fools 
cap  in  a  good  clear  hand ;  the  handwriting  was  Oliver  Cowdery's ; 
there  was  not  a  punctuation  mark  in  the  whole  manuscript ;  it  took 
eight  months  to  set  up  and  print. 

soPomeroy  Tucker  of  Palmyra,  New  York,  who  did  the  press- 
work,  is  reported  to  have  had  in  his  possession  the  first  sheets,  with 
printer's  corrections,  which  he  pulled  off  himself. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  97 

Booh  of  Mormon  are  of  more  than  secondary  im 
portance. 

To  take  up  the  more  important  question  of 
origins  and  the  vicissitudes  of  the  original  docu 
ment,  in  the  handwriting  of  Joseph's  scribes.  Its 
fate  has  been  compared  to  that  of  young  McPher- 
son's  Ossianic  documents,  which  were  never  forth 
coming.51  The  case  is  hardly  analogous:  so  late  as 
1887,  David  Whitmer,  one  of  the  three  witnesses, 
claimed  to  have  in  his  possession  the  very  original, 
in  the  handwriting  of  Oliver  Cowdery  and  others.52 
This  Cowdery  manuscript  is  now  in  New  York 
City,  having  been  transmitted  to  the  present  pos 
sessor,63  through  Whitmer's  grandson/4  That  this 
is  close  to  the  original,  is  to  be  surmised  from  the 
interest  taken  in  it  by  the  Utah  Mormons.  It  is 
contended  that  Whitmer  did  not  sell  it,  fearing  in 
terpolation  in  the  pages  containing  the  condemna- 

51  For  the  Ossianic  controversy,  compare  The  Academy -,  46,  205  ; 
Edmund  Gosse,  '  History  of  Eighteenth  Century  Literature/  pp. 
335-337;  Macmillan's  Magazine,  24,  113;  H.  A.  Beers,  'History 
of  English  Romanticism,'  pp.  306-338 ;  Shairp, «  Aspects  of  Poetry,' 
p.  228. 

52 'Address,'  p.  n. 

63  Mr.  William  Evarts  Benjamin,  through  whose  courtesy  the  fol 
lowing  data  were  obtainable. 

54  Mr.  George  W.  Schweich,  of  Richmond,  Missouri,  who  writes, 
January  27,  1902,  that  he  still  has  in  his  possession  the  manuscript 
history  of  the  early  Church  by  John  Whitmer.  The  latter  was 
'set  apart  by  revelation  as  historian  of  the  Church,'  March  8,  1831. 
The  Saints  claim  that  these  records  were  purloined  in  1838. 


98      THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

tion  of  polygamy.55  There  is  some  ground  for 
believing  that  Orson  Pratt  and  Joseph  F.  Smith 
considered  the  manuscript  genuine.  In  view  of 
the  Mormon's  handling  of  the  alleged  Spaulding 
prototype  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  their  critical 
opinion  is  worthless. 

To  examine  the  document  in  question.  There 
are  three  bits  of  external  evidence,  which  imply  the 
existence  of  a  number  of  first  hand  copies.  The 
second  edition  uses  the  plural, — 'original  manu 
scripts  ';  Whitmer  himself  mentions  another  partial 
transcription  &6  while  at  the  same  time,  he  asserts 

55  Jacob  T.  Child  writes  to  George  W.  Schweich,  August  28, 
1896: — '  I  was  present  when  Elders  Orson  Pratt  and  Smith,  from 
Salt  Lake  City,  called  on  your  grandfather  in  regard  to  the  manu 
script  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  and  upon  it  being  shown  to  them 
Elder  Pratt  recognized  the  handwriting  of  Oliver  Cowdery  and 
Mrs.   Smith.     After   some    conversation   Elder   Pratt   asked   Mr. 
Whitmer  if  he  would  dispose  of  the  manuscript,  stating  that  he 
would  give  anything  in  reason  for  it,  as  the  archives  of  the  Church 
were  incomplete  without  it.     There  was  no  fixed  sum  named  but 
your  grandfather  was  afraid  that  if  he  parted  with  it  that  they 
might  interpolate.'    Compare  affidavit  of  Jacob  T.  Child,  April  8th, 
1902:   «The    authenticity  of   the    manuscript  of  the  "Book   of 
Mormon,"  owned  by  David  Whitmer  and  falling  to  George  W. 
Schweich,  his  grandson,  is  exactly  as  it  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
the  printer;     .     .     .     [this]  can  be  easily  seen  from  the  "takes" 
and  finger-marks.     ...     I  also  have  a  copy  of  the  Palmyra  edi 
tion  in  which  David  Whitmer  asserted  that  this  is  a  true  and 
correct  printed  copy  of  the  original  manuscript.' 

56  'Address,'  p.  32. — « In  August,  1829,  the  « Book  of  Mormon,'  was 
still   in   the   hands   of    the   printer,    but    my    brother,    Christian 
Whitmer,   had  copied   from    the   manuscript   the   teachings  and 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  99 

that  his  copy  is  the  original.  But  the  promoters 
themselves  furnish  considerable  information.  The 
most  definite  statement  is  that  regarding  a  com 
mandment,  received  by  Joseph  soon  after  June  n, 
1829,  when  the  book  was  copyrighted.  It  was  to 
the  effect  that  Oliver  Cowdery  should  transcribe  the 
whole  manuscript  and  that  he  should  take  but  one 
copy  at  a  time  to  the  office,  so  that  if  one  copy 
should  get  destroyed,  there  would  still  be  a  copy 
remaining.57 

That  the  original  has  disappeared,  and  that  the 
manuscript  in  hand  is  the  secondary  Cowdery  copy, 
remains  to  be  proved.  Negatively,  the  state  of  the 
manuscript  does  not  agree  with  the  statements  of 
the  author.  Joseph  employed  three  scribes  in  dic 
tating  the  translation  of  the  Record.  These  were, 
in  order,  his  wife,  Emma  Hale;  a  schoolmaster, 
Oliver  Cowdery;  and  a  farmer,  Christian  Whitmer.58 

doctrine  of  Christ,  being  the  things  which  we  were  commanded  to 
preach.' 

57 '  Biographical  Sketches,'  142-3.  An  earlier  revelation,  April, 
1829,  speaks  of  'other  records.'  See  'Book  of  Commandments,' 
Chapter  8. 

58  Chronology,  from  Mormon  sources : — 

Two  or  three  years  before  September,  1827,  the  plates  were 
mentioned  to  Martin  Harris  : 

January  18,  1827.  Joseph  married  Emma  Hale  ;  she  writes  for 
him  only  a  short  time.  ' 

April  5,  1829.     Joseph  met  Oliver  Cowdery  for  the  first  time. 

April,  1829.  Revelation  to  Oliver,  when  employed  a  scribe  for 
Joseph. 


ioo    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Now  the  three  amanuenses  would  eventuate  in 
three  distinct  styles  of  handwriting,  but  here  the 
script  is  throughout  the  characteristic  and  authenti 
cated  hand  of  Cowdery.  More  positively  the  uni 
form  quality  of  the  paper,  the  continuation  of  the 
water  marks  and  like  signs 59  go  to  show  that  this 


June,  1829.     Joseph  removed  to  the  residence  of  the  Whitmers. 

June  II,  1829.     The  'Book  of  Mormon'  copyrighted. 

The  earliest  date  of  composition  is  given  by  an  anti-Mormon 
writer.  In  Scribner's  Magazine,  August,  1880,  p.  613,  Thurlow 
Weed  said  that,  as  editor  of  the  Rochester  Telegram  in  1825,  he 
was  approached  by  Joseph  Smith,  with  the  view  of  publishing  the 
'Book  of  Mormon,'  and  that  he  already  had  the  first  chapter 
written. 

59  There  is  change  in  the  quality  of  the  ink  and  the  smoothness 
of  the  pen,  but  not  in  the  individualities  of  letter  formation.  The 
continuous  crabbed  hand  is  that  of  Oliver  Cowdery  as  authenticated 
by  another  document  also  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin, 
viz. : — License  issued  to  Christian  Whitmer  '  signifying  and  proveing 
that  he  is  a  teacher  of  this  Church  of  Christ.  [Signed]  Joseph 
Smith,  Jr.,  first  elder;  Oliver  Cowdery,  second  elder.  [Dated] 
June  9th,  1830,  Fayette,  N.  Y.' 

More  positively  this  manuscript  is  unmistakably  the  work  of  one 
person,  and  not  the  occasional  dictations  of  several,  from  the  quality 
of  the  paper.  Its  size  is  uniform,  while  there  appear  throughout 
the  same  water  marks  O  &  H,  which  validate  not  only  the  pages 
on  which  they  stand,  but  also  the  connected  folios.  From  the 
latter  circumstance,  the  present  holder  deduced  that  a  quantity 
must  have  been  obtained  at  one  time,  ergo  the  purchaser  must  have 
known  the  extent  of  the  copying  to  be  done.  Finally  the  absence 
of  printer's  smudge  and  the  lack  of  proof-reader's  marks  furnish 
incidental  proof  that  this  was  not  the  copy  that  went  to  E.  B. 
Grandin's  printing  office.  Of  the  other  persons  concerned  in  these 
transactions  little  is  known,  except  that  the  printer's  devil  was  '  a 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  101 

manuscript  is  not  the  piecemeal  original,  but  the 
work  of  one  person. 

Leaving  these  material  signs,  there  remain  verbal 
and  literal  tests60  for  determining  the  further  ques 
tion  of  date,  for  finding  out  how  early  this  docu 
ment  really  was.  From  a  comparison  of  several 
passages  with  the  first  three  editions  of  the  Book  of 

young  man  by  the  name  of  Robinson.1  Compare  '  Biographical 
Sketches,'  p.  143. 

w  The  transmitter  calls  attention  to  the  erasures  or  crossed  out 
items,  and  the  minor  corrections  somewhat  different  from  any  of 
the  publications,  and  thereby  seeks  to  prove  that  this  is  the  original 
manuscript.  It  is  true  that  glosses  and  interlineations  do  not  im 
pair  primary  validity,  for  the  original  fair  copy  may  be  deciphered 
underneath.  Yet  if  the  latter  was  not  verbally  changed  by  the 
compositor,  and  yet  does  not  verbally  agree  with  the  first  edition,  it 
cannot  be  considered  the  printer's  copy.  But  to  examine  the  top 
most  of  the  two  strata.  As  it  stands,  the  manuscript  agrees  with 
neither  of  the  first  three  editions  in  spelling,  punctuation  or  capi 
talizing.  Of  three  passages,  selected  at  random,  the  verbal  agree 
ments  are  more  numerous  with  the  second  edition,  while  there  is 
little  resemblance  to  the  first.  Nevertheless,  the  underlying  text, 
without  the  superimposed  corrections  bears  a  striking  likeness  to 
the  original,  notably  in  such  archaisms  as  the  use  of  -which  for  who, 
and  of  saith  for  said.  Thus  page  373  has  who  substituted  for 
which  twelve  times.  Also  page  19  contains  a  phrase  that  appears 
only  in  the  first  edition :  (Fair  copy)  «  Eternal  God  &  Jesus  Christ 
which  is ' ;  (corrected  copy)  « Eternal  God  &  Mosiah  who  is ' ; 
(first  edition)  '  Eternal  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  which  is';  (second 
edition)  «  Eternal  God,  and  the  Messiah  who  is ' ;  (third  edition) 
'  Eternal  God,  and  the  Messiah  who  is.' 

To  sum  up  thus  far :  the  corrected  copy  is  secondary,  being 
mainly  revamped  after  the  model  of  later  editions,  but  the  fair 
copy  is  a  close  approach  to  the  earliest  printed  edition. 


102    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Mormon,  from  a  close  scrutiny  of  spelling,  punctu 
ation,  capitalizing  and  phrasing,  it  is  fair  to  conclude 
that  this  is  a,  complete  contemporary  copy  trans 
cribed  from  the  original.  There  may  be  taken  in 
evidence  of  this  the  famous  anti-polygamy  passage 
reproduced  on  the  opposite  page.61 

But  to  return  to  the  original  proposition,62  these 
characteristic  textual  erasures  and  scribal  repetitions 
lead  one  to  the  conclusion  that  this  is  the  veritable 
duplicate  copy  hurriedly  transcribed  by  Oliver 
Cowdery,  between  the  copyright  in  June,  1829,  and 
the  completion  of  the  printing  early  in  iS^o.63  In 
final  proof  of  this  is  the  noteworthy  circumstance 
that  the  author's  impossible  preface,  suppressed 
after  the  first  edition,  is  here  presented  with  all  its 
blemishes  and  blunders.  For  literary  purposes, 
then,  this  Cowdery  copy  is  of  extreme  importance. 
In  all  probability,  this  is  a  literal  transcript  of  the 
only  part  of  the  Booh  of  Mormon  where  Joseph 
Smith  set  his  pen  to  paper.  Cowdery  was  a  dis 
trict  schoolmaster,64  and  his  spelling  and  spacing 

61  From  a  photographic  reproduction  of  page  97  of  the  Cowdery 
copy,  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  W.  E.  Benjamin. 

62  For  an  obvious  case  of  repetition  compare  page  73,  containing 
a   quotation  from    Isaiah    7:5,6:     (Fair   copy)    'because  Syria, 
Ephraim,  &  the  Son  of  Remaliah ;  because  have  taken  evil  coun 
sel  ' ;    (corrected   copy)   '  because   Syria,  Ephraim  &  the  Son  of 
Remaliah,  have  taken  evil  counsel.' 

63  «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  143,  says :     '  Oliver  Cowdery  com 
menced  the  work  immediately  after  Joseph  left ' — which  was  soon 
after  the  copyright  was  secured. 

<*'  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  128. 


THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON  103 

only  occasionally  suffer  a  relapse,  but  this  preface65 

agrees   with   the   prophet's  confession  of  youthful 

illiteracy.66 

PREFACE.67 

To  THE  READER  — 

As  many  fals  reports  have  been  sirculated 
respecting  this  the  following  work  &  also  many 
unla  |  wful  measures  taken  by  evil  desineing 
persons  to  destroy  me  &  also  the  work  I 
would  |  inform  you  that  I  translated  by  the 
gift  &  power  of  God  &  caused  to  be  written 
one  |  hundred  and  sixteen  pages  the  which  I 
took  from  the  Book  of  Lehi  which  was  an 
ace  |  ount  abridged  from  the  plates  of  Lehi  by 
the  hand  of  Mormon  which  said  account  | 

66  The  words  in  italics  were  in  the  fair  copy  and  have  been 
crossed  out  in  the  corrected  copy. 

66 'Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  771. 

67  The  printed  preface  of  the  first  edition  avoids  all  the  errors  in 
the  above.     The  episode  referred  to  was  the  loss  of  116  pages  of 
manuscript  through  Joseph's  first  scribe,  Martin  Harris.     It  is  also 
recounted  at  greater  length,  in  what  was  probably  the  first  tedious 
draft  out  of  Joseph's  head.     The  first  fifteenth  of  it  reads  as  fol 
lows  : — '  A  Revelation  given  to  Joseph  in  Harmony,  Pennsylvania, 
May,  1829,  informing  him  of  the  alteration  of  the  manuscript  of 
the  forepart  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon." 

Behold,  they  have  sought  to  destroy  you ;  yea,  even  the  man  in 
whom  you  have  trusted. 

And  for  this  cause  I  said  that  he  is  a  wicked  man,  for  he  has 
sought  to  take  away  the  things  wherewith  you  have  been  en 
trusted  ;  and  he  has  also  sought  to  destroy  your  gift, 

And  because  you  have  delivered  the  writings  into  his  hands,  be 
hold,  they  have  taken  them  from  you : 

Therefore,  you  have  delivered  them  up ;  yea,  that  which  was 
sacred  unto  wickedness. 

And,  behold,  Satan  has  put  it  into  their  hearts  to  alter  the  words 
which  you  have  caused  to  be  written,  or  which  you  have  translated, 
which  have  gone  out  of  your  hands.'  «  Book  of  Commandments,' 
Chapter  IX. 


104    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

some  person  or  persons  have  stolen  &  kept  from 
me  not  withstanding  my  utmost  exer  |  sion  to 
recover  it  again  &  being  commanded  of  the 
Lord  that  I  should  not  translate  |  the  same 
over  again  for  Satan  had  put  it  into  their  hearts 
to  tempt  the  Lord  their  God  |  by  altering  the 
words  that  they  did  not  read  conterary  from 
that  which  I  translated  &  |  caused  to  be  writ 
ten  &  if  I  should  bring  forth  the  same  words 
again  or  in  other  words  if  I  |  should  translate 
the  same  over  again  they  would  publish  that 
which  they  had  stolen  &  |  Satan  would  stir  up 
the  hearts  of  this  generation  that  they  might 
not  receive  this  work  |  but  behold  the  Lord 
said  unto  me  I  will  not  suffer  that  Satan  shall 
accomplish  |  his  evil  design  in  this  thing  there 
fore  thou  shalt  translate  from  the  plates  of 
Nephi  |  untill  yvu  ye  come  to  that  which  ye 
have  translated  which  ye  have  retained  &  | 
behold  ye  shall  publish  it  as  the  record  of 
Nephi  &  thus  I  will  confound  those  which  | 
have  altered  my  words  I  will  not  suffer  that 
they  shall  destroy  my  work  yea  I  |  will  shew 
unto  them  that  my  wisdom  is  greater  then  the 
cunning  of  the  Devil  |  wherefore  to  be  obe- 
diant  unto  the  commandments  of  God  I  have 
through  his  grace  |  and  mercy  accomplished 
that  which  he  hath  commanded  me  respecting 
this  thing  |  I  would  also  inform  you  that  the 
plates  of  which  hath  been  spoken  were  was 
found  in  |  the  township  of  Manchester  Ontario 
County  New  York 

THE  AUTHOR. 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON:  THE  SOURCES 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON:  THE  SOURCES 

THE  Booh  of  Mormon l  is  about  one-third  the  size 
of  the  Bible.  It  purports  to  be  '  the  Sacred  History 
of  Ancient  America  from  the  Earliest  Ages  after  the 
Flood  to  the  Beginnings  of  the  Fifth  Century  of  the 
Christian  Era.1  The  author's  aim  was  to  invent  a 

1  The  quotations  are  here  taken  from  a  copy  of  the  first  edition 
bearing  the  signature  of  Brigham  Young.  For  convenience  the 
paging  is  given  as  in  the  third  edition,  1891,  Salt  Lake  City,  'with 
division  into  chapters  and  verses,  with  references,  by  Orson  Pratt, 
senior.' 

»O.  Pratt,  'Remarkable  Visions,'  1841:  'The  Lamanites  [In 
dians]  originally  were  a  remnant  of  Joseph,  and  in  the  first  year  of 
the  reign  of  Zedekiah,  King-of  Judah,  were  led  in  a  miraculous  man 
ner  from  Jerusalem  to  the  eastern  borders  of  the  Red  Sea,  thence 
for  some  time  along  its  borders  in  a  nearly  southeast  direction,  after 
which  they  altered  their  course  nearly  eastward,  until  they  came  to 
the  great  waters,  where  by  the  command  of  God  they  built  a  ves 
sel  in  which  they  were  safely  brought  across  the  great  Pacific 
Ocean,  and  landed  upon  the  western  coast  of  South  America.  The 
original  party  included  also  the  Nephites,  their  leader  being  a 
prophet  called  Nephi ;  but  soon  after  landing  they  separated,  be 
cause  the  Lamanites,  whose  leader  was  a  wicked  man  called  La- 
man,  persecuted  the  others.  After  the  partition  the  Nephites,  who 
had  brought  with  them  the  Old  Testament  down  to  the  time  of  Jere 
miah,  engraved  on  plates  of  brass,  in  the  Egyptian  language,  pros- 

107 


io8    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

series  of  fictitious  writers,  on  whom  to  father  all  his 
own  compositions.  The  names  of  these  worthies 
range  from  Jarom  to  Mormon,  from  Nephi  to  ZenifT. 
Their  works  have  been  thus  summarized  by  the 
prophet  himself:3 

*  We  are  informed  by  these  records,  that 
America,  in  ancient  times,  has  been  inhabited 
by  two  distinct  races  of  people.  The  first  were 
called  Jaredites,  and  came  directly  from  the 
tower  of  Babel.  The  second  race  came  directly 
from  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  about  six  hundred 
years  before  Christ.  They  were  principally  Is 
raelites,  of  the  descendants  of  Joseph.  The  Jare 
dites  were  destroyed,  about  the  time  that  the 
Israelites  came  from  Jerusalem,  who  succeeded 
them  in  the  inheritance  of  the  country.  The 
principal  nation  of  the  second  race  fell  in  battle 
towards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century.  The 
remnant  are  the  Indians,  who  now  inhabit  this 
country.  This  book  also  tells  us  that  our  Saviour 

pered  and  built  large  cities.  But  the  bold,  bad  Lamanites,  origi 
nally  white,  became  dark  and  dirty,  though  still  retaining  a  na 
tional  existence.  They  became  wild,  savage,  and  ferocious,  seek 
ing  by  every  means  the  destruction  of  the  prosperous  Nephites, 
against  whom  they  many  times  arrayed  their  hosts  in  battle ;  but 
were  repulsed  and  driven  back  to  their  own  territories,  generally 
with  great  loss  to  both  sides.  The  slain,  frequently  amounting  to 
tens  of  thousands,  were  piled  together  in  great  heaps  and  over 
spread  with  a  thin  covering  of  earth,  which  will  satisfactorily  ac 
count  for  those  ancient  mounds  filled  with  human  bones,  so  numer 
ous  at  the  present  day,  both  in  North  and  South  America.' 
8  Rupp,  p.  406. 


THE   SOURCES  109 

made  His  appearance  upon  this  continent  after 
His  resurrection ;  that  He  planted  the  gospel 
here  in  all  its  fulness  and  richness,  and  power, 
and  blessing ;  that  they  had  apostles,  prophets, 
pastors,  teachers,  and  evangelists;  the  same 
order,  the  same  priesthood,  the  same  ordinances, 
gifts,  powers,  and  blessing,  as  was  enjoyed  on 
the  Eastern  continent;  that  the  people  were 
cut  off  in  consequence  of  their  transgressions ; 
that  the  last  of  their  prophets  who  existed  among 
them  was  commanded  to  write  an  abridgment  of 
their  prophecies,  history,  etc.,  and  to  hide  it  up 
in  the  earth,  and  that  it  should  come  forth  and 
be  united  with  the  Bible,  for  the  accomplishment 
of  the  purposes  of  God  in  the  last  days. '  * 

In  the  second  and  subsequent  editions  it  is  stated 
that  the  book  was  '  translated  by  Joseph  Smith,  jun- 

« Compare  American  Law  Review,  34,  219-221,  «  The  Law  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon.'  «  There  are  five  periods  :  (i)  a  kingdom,  (2)  a 
republic  under  judges,  (3)  anarchy,  (4)  Messianic  dispensation, 
(5)  second  anarchy. 

It  bears  traces  of  the  hand  of  a  citizen  of  the  United  States. 
There  was  no  privileged  class.  Slavery  was  unknown.  The  king 
or  judge  had  no  council  or  parliament.  Salaried  judges  were 
elected  for  life  or  during  good  behavior,  the  election  being  proba 
bly  viva  voce  by  acclamation.  They  had  to  take  an  oath  of  office, 
and  to  judge  according  to  the  Mosaic  decalogue,  which  was  adopted 
en  bloc.  No  jury  was  used.  A  writ  of  false  judgment  lay  to  a  kind 
of  Court  of  Delegates.  .  .  .  The  people  had  a  right  of  peti 
tion.  Death  was  inflicted  only  for  murder  and  treason.  A  debtor 
was  arrested  and  taken  before  a  judge.  The  law  of  contract  and 
succession  was  quite  undeveloped.  Three  witnesses  were  gen 
erally  required.  .  .  .  Sorcery,  witchcraft,  and  magic  were 
among  the  crimes  rife  in  the  land.' 


I  io    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

ior/  but  on  the  title  page  of  the  first  edition  is  an 
important  variation,— Joseph  Smith  was  not  the 
translator  but  the  author: — 


1  The  Book  of  Mormon :  an  account  written  by  The 
Hand  of  Mormon,  upon  plates  taken  from  the  plates  of 
Nephi.  Wherefore  it  is  an  abridgment  of  the  record  of 
the  people  of  Nephi;  and  also  of  the  Lamanites,  who 
are  a  remnant  of  the  House  of  Israel ;  and  also  to  Jew 
and  Gentile ;  written  by  way  of  commandment,  and  also 
by  the  spirit  of  Prophecy  and  of  Revelation.  Written, 
and  sealed  up,  and  hid  up  unto  the  Lord,  that  they  might 
not  be  destroyed ;  to  come  forth  by  the  gift  and  power 
of  GOD  unto  the  interpretation  thereof;  sealed  by  the 
hand  of  Moroni,  and  hid  up  unto  the  Lord,  to  come 
forth  in  due  time  by  the  way  of  Gentile ;  the  interpreta 
tion  thereof  by  the  gift  of  God.  An  abridgment  taken 
from  the  Book  of  Ether.  Also,  which  is  a  Record  of  the 
people  of  Jared  ;  which  were  scattered  at  the  time  the 
Lord  confounded  the  language  of  the  people  when  they 
were  building  a  tower  to  get  to  Heaven  ;  which  is  to  shew 
unto  the  remnant  of  the  House  of  Israel  how  great  things 
the  Lord  hath  done  for  their  fathers ;  and  that  they  may 
know  the  covenants  of  the  Lord,  that  they  are  not  cast 
off  forever ;  and  also  to  the  convincing  of  the  Jew  and 
Gentile  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Eternal  God,  mani 
festing  Himself  unto  all  nations.  And  now  if  there  be 
fault,  it  be  the  mistake  of  men ;  wherefore  condemn  not 
the  things  of  God,  that  ye  may  be  found  spotless  at  the 
judgment-seat  of  Christ.  By  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  Au 
thor  and  Proprietor,  Palmyra.  (Printed  by  E.  B.  Grandin, 
for  the  author,  1830.)  ' 


THE  SOURCES  in 

This  inadvertent  admission  of  authorship  is  in 
valuable.  Being  reiterated  and  gratuitous,  it  points 
to  the  authenticity  of  the  book;  hence  an  analysis 
of  its  contents  will  serve  as  an  analysis  of  the 
prophet's  mind,  an  intimate  means  of  judging  his 
early  mental  ability.  Yet  a  mere  repetition  of  the 
story5  is  not  so  illuminating  as  a  study  of  the 
sources.  How  did  the  young  writer  come  by  these 
curious  notions  about  Old  Testament  history,  the 
lost  ten  tribes,  ancient  America  and  the  like  ?  The 
elements  of  the  environment  provide  a  satisfactory 
answer,— Joseph's  life  in  the  backwoods,  the  books 
he  read,  the  education  he  received,  the  sermons  he 
heard,— these,  and  all  the  rest  of  his  experiences, 
furnished  the  matter  for  this  '  account  of  the  abo 
rigines  of  America.'  Thus  the  dedication  to  the 
Lamanites  or  Indians  may  be  laid  to  the  author's 
situation  in  the  heart  of  the  Iroquois  country,  just 
when  Fenimore  Cooper  was  evolving  his  Leather- 
Stocking  Tales.6  The  manner  of  writing  likewise 
reflected  the  times,— it  took  the  easy  form  of  scrip 
tural  paraphrase  much  like  the  current  parody  of 
the  Boston  Tea  Party  entitled  The  First  Booh  of  the 
American  Chronicle? 

8  For  contents  of  the  «  Book  of  Mormon,'  see  Appendix  I. 

e  The  Spy  appeared  in  1822;  The  Pioneer  \K  1823;  The  Last  of 
the  Mohicans  in  1826. 

7  Moses  Coit  Tyler, «  The  Literary  History  of  the  American  Revo 
lution,'  New  York,  1897,  *•  257-  Compare  also  a  Mormon  parody 


ii2    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

But  to  take  up  in  order  the  links  between  the 
volume  and  the  surroundings.  The  atmosphere 
being  oversaturated  with  religion,  its  borrowings 
were  necessarily  biblical.  Most  obvious  are  lengthy 
excerpts  from  the  King  James'  version:  than  which 
'the  sense  is  materially  better  and  clearer,  in 
the  texts  from  the  Book  of  Mormon^  says  the 
apologist.  Yet  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  are  given  in  their  entirety, 
and  eleven  chapters  of  Isaiah  are  '  taken  by  Nephi 
from  the  brass  plates;8  while  the  whole  work  is  a 
mosaic  of  Old  Testament  allusions  and  New  Testa 
ment  proof-texts.9  In  addition  to  these  verbal  quo 
tations,  there  are  elaborate  adaptations: — a  long 
imitation  of  the  chapter  in  Hebrews  on  faith,  new 
variations  in  the  woes  against  the  Pharisees,  and 
twenty-six  pages  of  the  suppositious  sayings  and 
doings  of  the  Lord  in  his  advent  to  America.10 
There  are  finally  numerous  transformations  of 
canonical  matter;  for  example,  the  parable  of  the 
dying  olive-tree  is  grafted  on  the  metaphor  of  the 

of  Psalm  Hi.  '  To  the  Chief  Musician,  Maschil,  a  Psalm  for  Joseph 
when  Boggs  the  Edomite  came  and  told  Carlin,  and  said  unto  him, 
Joseph  is  come  to  the  city  of  Nauvoo.'  '  Times  and  Seasons,'  2, 464. 

8  «  Book  of  Mormon,'  footnote,  p.  87. 

8  Hyde,  p.  233.  Counts  298  New  Testament  quotations  in  426 
pages  of  the  first  edition. 

1°  «  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  119,  597-9.  It  should  be  noted  that 
interpolations  and  variations  are  acknowledged  by  the  Mormons, 
e.g.,  '  this  sentence  not  in  the  present  versions  of  the  Bible.' 


THE   SOURCES  113 

wild  olive-tree  and  the  whole,  with  its  ramifications, 
spreads  over  nine  pages.  These  quotations,  vari 
ations  and  expansions  are  a  considerable  block  to  be 
subtracted  from  the  original  mass.11 

The  method  of  manufacture  is  further  revealed  by 
the  discovery  that,  in  many  parts,  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon  is  nothing  but  a  thinly  veiled  autobiography. 
As  The  Pilgrim's  Progress  contained  hints  of  Bun- 
yan's  life,12  so  in  this  unwitting  allegory  the  thread 
of  fact  frequently  comes  to  the  surface.  How 
completely  this  line  of  actuality  runs  through  the 
book  will  be  seen  only  at  the  conclusion  of  the  an 
alysis.  Yet  the  opening  verse  furnishes  the  clue: 
the  name  of  the  prophet  is  Nephi,  but  the  acts  are 
the  acts  of  Joseph: — 'I,  Nephi,  having  been  born 
of  goodly  parents,  therefore  I  was  taught  some 
what  in  all  the  learning  of  my  fathers;  and  having 
seen  many  afflictions  in  the  course  of  my  days — 
nevertheless,  having  been  highly  favored  of  the 
Lord  in  all  my  days;  yea,  having  had  a  great 
knowledge  of  the  goodness  and  the  mysteries  of 
God,  therefore  I  make  a  record  of  my  proceedings 
in  my  days.' 

11  Kidder,  p.  291,  estimates  one-eighteenth  of  the  whole  to  be 
borrowed  from  the  Bible,  viz. :  Isa.  2,  14,  18,  19,  21,48,  49,  50,  51, 
52,  54;  Mai.  3;  Matt.  5,  6,  7 ;   I  Cor.  13. 

12  Compare  edition  of  1871,  p.  186: — '  Now  Reader,  I  have  told 
my  Dream  to  thee ;  see  if  thou  canst  interpret  it  to  me.    .    .    .    Put 
by  the  Curtains,  look  within  my  Vail ;  turn  up  my  Metaphors,'  etc. 


114    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 


An  assurance  that  Nephi  is  Joseph,  junior,  is 
found  in  the  coincidence  that  the  dream  of  his 
father  Lehi,  is  none  other  than  the  dream  of 
Joseph,  senior.  The  account  in  the  Booh  of 
Mormon  is  inflated  with  scriptural  phrases,  but  the 
ideas— with  but  trilling  exceptions— are  the  same 
throughout.13 


J3  [  «  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp. 
15,  16.  The  dream  of  Lehi.] 

1  Behold,  I  have  dreamed  a 
dream  ;  or,  in  other  words,  I 
have  seen  a  vision.  .  .  .  For 
behold,  me  thought  I  saw  a 
dark  and  dreary  wilderness. 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  saw 
a  man,  and  he  was  dressed  in  a 
white  robe ;  and  he  came  and 
stood  before  me.  And  it  came 
to  pass  that  he  spake  unto  me, 
and  bade  me  follow  him. 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  as  I 
followed  him,  I  beheld  myself 
that  I  was  in  a  dark  and  dreary 
waste.  And  after  I  had  traveled 
for  the  space  of  many  hours  in 
the  darkness,  I  began  to  pray 
unto  the  Lord,  that  He  would 
have  mercy  on  me,  according 
to  the  multitude  of  His  tender 
mercies.  And  it  came  to  pass 
after  that  I  had  prayed  unto  the 
Lord,  I  beheld  a  large  and 
spacious  field.  And  it  came  to 
pass  that  I  beheld  a  tree,  whose 
fruit  was  desirable  to  make  one 


[ '  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp. 
58,  59-  Joseph  Smith,  senior's 
vision  of  1811.] 

'  I  thought  I  was  traveling  in 
an  open,  desolate  field,  which 
appeared  to  be  very  barren.  As 
I  was  thus  traveling,  the  thought 
suddenly  came  into  my  mind 
that  I  had  better  stop  and  re 
flect  upon  what  I  was  doing, 
before  I  went  any  further.  So 
I  asked  myself,  "  What  motive 
can  I  have  in  traveling  here, 
and  what  place  can  this  be  ?  " 
My  guide  who  was  by  my  side, 
as  before,  said,  "  This  is  the 
desolate  world ;  but  travel  on." 
The  road  was  so  broad  and  bar 
ren,  that  I  wondered  why  I 
should  travel  in  it ;  for,  said  I  to 
myself,  "  Broad  is  the  road,  and 
wide  is  the  gate  that  leads  to 
death,  and  many  there  be  that 
walk  therein ;  but  narrow  is  the 
way,  and  straight  is  the  gate, 
that  leads  to  everlasting  life, 
and  few  there  be  that  go  in 
thereat."  Traveling  a  short  dis- 


THE   SOURCES 


This  quotation  implies  and  reverts  to  ancestry; 
even  more  does  it  disclose  environment.  Its  poverty 
of  style  at  once  evinces  the  scanty  education  within 


happy.  And  it  came  to  pass 
that  I  did  go  forth,  and  partake 
of  the  fruit  thereof;  and  I  be 
held  that  it  was  most  sweet, 
above  all  that  I  ever  before 
tasted.  Yea,  and  I  beheld 
that  the  fruit  thereof  was  white, 
to  exceed  all  the  whiteness  that 
I  had  ever  seen.  And  as  I 
partook  of  the  fruit  thereof,  it 
filled  my  soul  with  exceeding 
great  joy;  wherefore,  I  began 
to  be  desirous  that  my  family 
should  partake  of  it  also ;  for  I 
knew  that  it  was  desirable 
above  all  other  fruit.  And  as  I 
cast  my  eyes  round  about,  that 
perhaps  I  might  discover  my 
family  also,  [I]  beheld  a  river 
of  water  ;  and  it  ran  along,  and 
it  was  near  the  tree  of  which  I 
was  partaking  the  fruit.  And  I 
looked  to  behold  from  whence 
it  came;  and  I  saw  the  head 
thereof  a  little  way  off;  and  at 
the  head  thereof,  I  beheld  your 
mother  Sariah,  and  Sam,  and 
Nephi ;  and  they  stood  as  if  they 
knew  not  whither  they  should 
go.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I 
beckoned  unto  them ;  and  I  also 
did  say  unto  them,  with  a  loud 
voice,  that  they  should  come 


tance  further,  I  came  to  a  nar 
row  path.  This  path  I  entered, 
and,  when  I  had  traveled  a 
little  way  in  it,  I  beheld  a 
beautiful  stream  of  water,  which 
ran  from  the  east  to  the  west. 
Of  this  stream  I  could  see 
neither  the  source  nor  yet  the 
termination;  but  as  far  as  my 
eyes  could  extend  I  could  see 
a  rope,  running  along  the  bank 
of  it,  about  as  high  as  a  man 
could  reach,  and  beyond  me, 
was  a  low,  but  very  pleasant 
valley,  in  which  stood  a  tree, 
such  as  I  had  never  seen  before. 
It  was  exceedingly  handsome, 
insomuch  that  I  looked  upon  it 
with  wonder  and  admiration. 
Its  beautiful  branches  spread 
themselves  somewhat  like  an 
umbrella,  and  it  bore  a  kind  of 
fruit,  in  shape  much  like  a  chest 
nut  burr,  and  as  white  as  snow, 
or,  if  possible,  whiter.  I  gazed 
upon  the  same  with  consider 
able  interest,  and  as  I  was 
doing  so,  the  burrs  or  shells 
commenced  opening  and  shed 
ding  their  particles,  or  the  fruit 
which  they  contained,  which 
was  of  dazzling  whiteness.  I 
drew  near  and  began  to  eat  of 


ii6    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 


reach  of  the  boy.  With  the  disappearance  of  the 
original  manuscripts  there  is  no  way  of  judging  the 
sum  total  of  grammatical  errors:  their  quantity  may 


unto  me,  and  partake  of  the 
fruit,  which  was  desirable  above 
all  other  fruit.  And  it  came  to 
pass  that  they  did  come  unto 
me,  and  partake  of  the  fruit 
also.  And  it  came  to  pass  that 
I  was  desirous  that  Laman  and 
Lemuel  should  come  and  par 
take  of  the  fruit  also;  where 
fore,  I  cast  mine  eyes  towards 
the  head  of  the  river,  that  per 
haps  I  might  see  them.  And 
it  came  to  pass  that  I  saw  them, 
but  they  would  not  come  unto 
me.  And  I  beheld  a  rod  of 
iron ;  and  it  extended  along  the 
bank  of  the  river,  and  led  to 
the  tree  by  which  I  stood.  And 
I  also  beheld  a  straight  and 
narrow  path,  which  came  along 
by  the  rod  of  iron,  even  to  the 
tree  by  which  I  stood;  and  it 
also  led  by  the  head  of  the 
fountain,  unto  a  large  and 
spacious  field,  as  if  it  had  been 
a  world ;  and  I  saw  numberless 
concourses  of  people  ;  many  of 
whom  were  pressing  forward, 
that  they  might  obtain  the  path 
which  led  unto  the  tree  by 
which  I  stood.  And  it  came  to 
pass  that  they  did  come  forth, 
and  commence  in  the  path 


it,  and  I  found  it  delicious  be 
yond  description.  As  I  was 
eating,  I  said  in  my  heart, 
"  I  cannot  eat  this  alone,  I 
must  bring  my  wife  and  chil 
dren,  that  they  may  partake 
with  me."  Accordingly,  I  went 
and  brought  my  family,  which 
consisted  of  a  wife  and  seven 
children,  and  we  all  commenced 
eating,  and  praising  God  for  this 
blessing.  We  were  exceedingly 
happy,  insomuch  that  our  joy 
could  not  easily  be  expressed. 
While  thus  engaged,  I  beheld  a 
spacious  building  standing  op 
posite  the  valley  which  we  were 
in,  and  it  appeared  to  reach  to 
the  very  heavens.  It  was  full 
of  doors  and  windows,  and  they 
were  all  filled  with  people,  who 
were  very  finely  dressed.  When 
these  people  observed  us  in  the 
low  valley,  under  the  tree,  they 
pointed  the  finger  of  scorn  at 
us,  and  treated  us  with  all  man 
ner  of  disrespect  and  contempt. 
But  their  contumely  we  utterly 
disregarded.  I  presently  turned 
to  my  guide,  and  inquired  of 
him  the  meaning  of  the  fruit 
that  was  so  delicious.  He  told 
me  it  was  the  pure  love  of  God, 


THE   SOURCES 


117 


yet  be  inferred  from  the  rhetorical  quality  of  the 
present  editions. 


which  led  to  the  tree.  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  there  arose  a 
mist  of  darkness ;  yea,  even  an 
exceeding"  great  mist  of  dark 
ness,  insomuch  that  they  who 
had  commenced  in  the  path, 
did  lose  their  way,  that  they 
wandered  off  and  were  lost. 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  be 
held  others  pressing  forward; 
and  they  came  forth  and  caught 
hold  of  the  end  of  the  rod  of  iron ; 
and  they  did  press  forward 
through  the  mist  of  darkness, 
clinging  to  the  rod  of  iron,  even 
until  they  did  come  forth  and 
partake  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree. 
And  after  they  had  partaken  of 
the  fruit  of  the  tree,  they  did  cast 
their  eyes  about  as  if  they  were 
ashamed.  And  I  also  did  cast 
my  eyes  round  about,  and  be 
held,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river  of  water,  a  great  and 
spacious  building  ;  and  it  stood 
as  it  were  in  the  air,  high  above 
the  earth ;  and  it  was  filled 
with  people,  both  old  and 
young,  both  male  and  female; 
and  their  manner  of  dress  was 
exceeding  fine ;  and  they  were 
in  the  attitude  of  mocking  and 
pointing  their  finger  towards 
those  who  had  come  at,  and 
were  partaking  of  the  fruit.' 


shed  abroad  in  the  hearts  of  all 
those  that  love  Him,  and  keep 
His  commandments.  He  then 
commanded  me  to  go  and  bring 
the  rest  of  my  children.  I  told 
him  that  we  were  all  there. 
"  No,"  he  replied, "  look  yonder, 
you  have  two  more,  and  you 
must  bring  them  also."  Upon 
raising  my  eyes,  I  saw  two 
small  children,  standing  some 
distance  off.  I  immediately 
went  to  them,  and  brought 
them  to  the  tree ;  upon  which 
they  commenced  eating  with 
the  rest,  and  we  all  rejoiced  to 
gether.  The  more  we  eat,  the 
more  we  seemed  to  desire,  until 
we  even  got  down  upon  our 
knees,  and  scooped  it  up,  eating 
it  by  double  handfuls.  After 
feasting  in  this  manner  a  short 
time,  I  asked  my  guide  what 
was  the  meaning  of  the  spacious 
building  that  I  saw.  He  re 
plied,  "It  is  Babylon,  it  is 
Babylon,  and  it  must  fall.  The 
people  in  the  doors  and  windows 
are  the  inhabitants  thereof,  who 
scorn  and  despise  the  Saints  of 
God,  because  of  their  humility." 
I  soon  awoke,  clapping  my  hands 
together  for  joy.' 


n8    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Barbarisms  and  solecisms  abound,  due  to  what 
Smith  called  his  '  lack  of  fluency  according  to  the 
literati.'  Over  and  above  these  are  unique  ex 
pressions,  which  well  deserve  the  name  of  'Smith- 
isms.'  Thus: — 'Nephi  did  molten  ore  out  of  the 
rock,  that  he  might  engraven  upon  them  the  record 
of  the  more  history  part.'  The  author's  meagre 
schooling  is  not  indicated  so  much  by  these  verbal 
peculiarities,  as  by  the  lack  of  ideas  derived  from 
primary  education.  There  are  some  references  to 
geography  and  history,  but  the  former  is  made  so 
indefinite  and  the  latter  so  obscure,  that  much  eluci 
dation  is  called  for.  Lest  the  profane  read  with  one 
eye  shut,  the  Saints  have  provided  annotations. 
Take  for  example  Nephi's  vision  of  the  future,  and 
Moroni's  prayer  for  the  land  :— 

'  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  looked  and  beheld  many 
waters  (the  Atlantic  Ocean) ;  and  they  divided  the  Gen 
tiles  from  the  seed  of  my  brethren.  And  I  looked  and 
beheld  a  man  among  the  Gentiles  (Columbus),  which 
was  separated  from  the  seed  of  my  brethren  by  the  many 
waters;  and  I  beheld  the  Spirit  of  God,  that  it  came 
down  and  wrought  upon  the  man;  and  he  went  forth 
upon  the  many  waters,  even  unto  the  seed  of  my  breth 
ren,  which  were  in  the  promised  land.  And  it  came  to 
pass  that  I  beheld  the  Spirit  of  God,  that  it  wrought  upon 
other  Gentiles  (the  Pilgrim  fathers)  ;  and  they  went 
forth  out  of  captivity,  upon  the  many  waters.  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  I  beheld  many  multitudes  of  the  Gent- 


THE   SOURCES  119 

iles  upon  the  land  of  promise ;  and  I  beheld  the  wrath 
of  God,  that  it  was  upon  the  seed  of  my  brethren  (the 
Indians)  ;  and  they  were  scattered  before  the  Gentiles, 
and  were  smitten.  And  I  beheld  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord, 
that  it  was  upon  the  Gentiles  ;  that  they  did  prosper,  and 
obtain  the  land  of  their  inheritance.  .  .  .  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  I,  Nephi,  beheld  that  the  Gentiles  who 
had  gone  forth  out  of  captivity,  did  humble  themselves 
before  the  Lord ;  and  the  power  of  the  Lord  was  with 
them.  And  I  beheld  that  their  mother  Gentiles  (the 
British)  was  gathered  together  upon  the  waters,  and  upon 
the  land  also,  to  battle  against  them.  And  I  beheld  that 
the  power  of  God  was  with  them ;  and  also  that  the  wrath 
of  God  was  upon  them,  that  were  gathered  together 
against  them  to  battle.  And  I,  Nephi,  beheld  that  the 
Gentiles  that  had  gone  out  of  captivity  (the  United 
States),  were  delivered  by  the  power  of  God,  out  of  the 
hands  of  all  other  nations.  .  .  . 

And  the  prophet  Moroni  prayed  that  the  cause  of  the 
Christians,  and  the  freedom  of  the  land  might  be  favored. 
And  it  came  to  pass  that  when  he  had  poured  out  his 
soul  to  God,  he  gave  all  the  land  both  on  the  north 
and  on  the  south,  a  chosen  land,  and  the  land  of 
liberty.  Nevertheless  they  were  not  fighting  for  mon 
archy  nor  power,  but  they  were  fighting  for  their 
homes  and  their  liberties ;  yea  for  their  rites  of 
worship  and  their  church.  Therefore  for  this  cause 
were  the  Nephites  contending  with  the  Lamanites  (In 
dians),  to  defend  themselves,  and  their  families,  and 
their  lands,  their  country,  and  their  rights,  and  their  re 
ligion.  And  thus  it  did  come  to  pass  that  the  people  of 
Nephi  began  to  multiply  and  spread,  even  until  they  did 
cover  the  whole  face  of  the  land,  from  the  sea  west  to  the 


120    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

sea  east.  And  the  Lamanites  did  give  unto  us  the  land 
northward  (North  America)  ;  yea  even  to  the  narrow 
passage  which  led  into  the  land  southward  (South 
America.'  u 

All  this  was  written  by  a  youth  who  was  not 
much  'inclined  to  the  study  of  books.'  But  if  the 
sphere  of  knowledge  was  small, — by  a  sort  of  imagi 
native  aeration,  it  swelled  to  a  large  bulk.  Joseph's 
wits  were  early  at  work;  three  years  before  the 
gold  plates  were  delivered,  his  mother  said,  '  During 
our  evening  conversations,  Joseph  would  occasion 
ally  give  us  some  of  the  most  amusing  recitals  that 
could  be  imagined.  He  would  describe  the  ancient 
inhabitants  of  this  country,  their  dress,  mode  of 
traveling,  and  the  animals  upon  which  they  rode; 
their  cities,  their  buildings,  with  every  particular; 
their  mode  of  warfare  and  also  their  religious  worship. 
This  he  would  do  with  as  much  ease,  seemingly,  as 
if  he  had  spent  his  whole  life  with  them.' 15 

The  boy's  inventions  naturally  reappeared  in  his 
book.  As  those  that  '  went  forth  out  of  captivity ' 
were  the  Pilgrim  fathers  seen  through  a  haze  of 
tradition,  so  the  Lamanites  were  the  Indians  of 
yesterday,  with  an  air  of  mysterious  antiquity 
thrown  about  them.  The  novelist  in  an  adjoining 

14  Compiled  from  «  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  26-29,  37°»  37  x»  3^3» 
460,  552. 

I*  •  Biographical  Sketches/  p.  85. 


THE  SOURCES  121 

county  succeeded  in  idealizing  the  last  of  the  Mohi 
cans.  The  inexperienced  youngster  failed  to  make 
him  anything  but  the  ignoble  red  man.  Here  is  the 
composite  portrait: — In  appearance,  the  Lamanites 
'were  a  dark,  loathsome,  filthy  and  idle  people, 
they  wore  a  girdle  about  their  loins,  their  heads 
were  shaven,  they  had  marked  themselves  with  red 
in  their  foreheads.'  As  to  their  habits,  'they  dwelt 
in  tents;  seeking  in  the  wilderness  for  beasts  of 
prey;  at  night  they  did  rend  the  air  with  their  cries 
and  howlings  and  their  mournings  for  the  loss  of 
the  slain.'  In  war  '  they  carried  the  bow,  the  cimiter 
and  the  axe,  they  smote  off  the  scalp  of  their  ene 
mies;  they  took  many  prisoners  and  tortured 
them.'16 

And  these  were  'the  seed  of  Abraham,  remnants 
of  the  house  of  Israel.'  The  Booh  of  Mormon  is  in 
deed  the  'record  of  a  fallen  people';  the  degenera 
tion  is  so  complete  that,  when,  in  the  parable,  this 
branch  of  the  wild  olive-tree  is  said  to  be  '  of  no 
worth/  the  commentator  hastens  to  refer  this  to  the 
present  condition  of  the  Indians.  "  But  the  annota 
tion  does  not  agree  with  the  text;  these  same 
Lamanites  were  those  who  left  behind  'bones  as 
heaps,  and  works  of  timbers  upon  the  top  of  the 

>« « Book  of  Mormon/  pp.  25,  151,  240,  302,  366,  607.     Compare 
« Times  and  Seasons,'  2,  474,  Poem  on  the  Red  Man. 
" '  Book  of  Mormon,'  p.  142. 


122     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

ridges  of  earth,  or  in  other  words,— the  ancient 
mounds  of  North  America.' 18 

The  Mormons  were  hard  pressed  to  explain  why 
the  Indians  had  lost  their  theological  traditions,19  so 
they  laid  great  stress  on  their  material  remains. 
Yet  here  is  manifest  if  at  all,  the  influence  of 
Joseph's  surroundings.  He  lived  in  a  country  full 
of  mysterious  aboriginal  monuments. 20  Along  the 
shores  of  Lake  Ontario  there  was  a  series  of  ancient 
earthworks,  entrenched  hills  and  occasional  mounds 
or  tumuli.  These  works  spread  over  the  lands  of 
the  Holland  Land  Company,21  where  Joseph,  senior, 
had  taken  up  his  claim.  At  Canandaigua,  only  nine 
miles  away,  there  was  an  embankment  on  a  hill, 
where  human  bones  and  relics  were  found.  At 
Livonia,22  in  adjacent  Livingstone  County,  there  was 
an  artificial  embankment  and  ditch  inclosing  an  area 
of  sixteen  acres.  The  other  way,  in  Seneca  County, 


^'Book  of  Mormon,'  p.  595,  and  footnote,  383. 

'9 '  Times  and  Seasons,'  2,  473. 

2°  The  following  facts,  unless  otherwise  specified,  are  taken  from 
E.  G.  Squier, « The  Aboriginal  Monuments  of  New  York  State,' 
1851,  being  Vol.  II  of  the  «  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowl 
edge.' 

21  H.  O'Reilly, «  Sketches  of  Rochester,'  1838,  p.  377. 

22  Canandaigua  and   Livonia  are   mentioned   in  '  Biographical 
Sketches,'  pp.  96  and  135.     The  distances  in  Joseph's  time   can 
only  be  approximated  as  the  roads  were  few.     The  principal  re- 
mains  here  mentioned  can  nowadays  be  reached  from  Manchester 
in  a  day's  tramp. 


THE   SOURCES  123 

there  were  ancient  caches  full  of  art  relics  and  frag 
ments  of  pottery.  But  there  were  more  notable  re 
mains  nearer  home;  if  not  within  walking  distance, 
at  least  within  the  circle  of  rumor.  Just  east  of 
Geneva  was  a  so-called  Indian  Castle;  here  stumps 
of  the  palisades  were  struck  by  the  plough,  when 
the  land  was  first  cultivated,  and  the  holes  formed 
by  the  decay  of  the  pickets  were  still  visible  in  1847. 
Finally,  in  the  vicinity  of  Manchester,  enough 
hatchets  and  spear  heads  were  dug  up  to  supply 
the  local  blacksmiths  with  iron.  Now  popular 
opinion  regarded  the  origin  of  these  remains  as 
buried  in  antiquity.  Governor  De  Witt  Clinton,  in 
his  pamphlet  of  i8n,23  dubbed  these  mound-build 
ers  'the  Romans  of  the  Western  World.1  Examin 
ing  the  three  works  near  Canandaigua  and  counting 
the  rings  in  the  trees  growing  upon  them,  he  esti 
mated  that  they  were  one  thousand  years  old; 
hence  not  the  work  of  present  Indians,  nor  of 
European  explorers.  Other  writers  held  views 
more  positive,  if  less  probable;  these  were  the  re 
mains  of  Phoenician  and  Scandanavian  colonists, — 
of  the  apocryphal  Madoc  with  his  ten  ships. 

But  the  theory  of  Hebraic  origin  was  the  favorite. 
It  began  with  the  very  discovery  of  America,  con 
tinued  through  Puritan  times  and  was  rife  in  these 

9'De  Witt  Clinton, «  Discourse/  published  in  1811,  not  1818  as 
O'Reilly  states. 


124     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

parts  when  Joseph  was  growing  up.  There  is  an 
abundant  literature  on  the  subject.  The  early  Span 
ish  priests  identified  the  native  Americans  with  the 
lost  ten  tribes  of  Israel;  in  1650  a  Jewish  Rabbi 
advocated  it;24  the  same  year  appeared  Thorow- 
good's  'Jews  in  America,  or  Probabilites  that  the 
Americans  are  of  that  Race;'  two  years  after, 
John  Eliot,  apostle  to  the  Indians,  wrote  an  essay  to 
the  same  effect.  Since  the  conversion  of  the  abo 
rigines  was  one  of  the  aims  in  settling  New  Eng 
land  and  was  enjoined  also  in  the  charters  of 
other  colonies,25  both  New  England  divines  and 
founders  of  states  welcomed  these  speculations. 
The  line  of  belief  persisted  through  Mayhew 
Mather,  Roger  Williams,  William  Penn,  Jonathan 
Edwards  down  to  Elias  Boudinot's  work  in  1816,  en 
titled  A  star  in  the  West,  or  an  attempt  to  discover 
the  lost  Ten  Tribes  of  Israel.™ 

Interest  in  these  theories  was  wide;  as  was  said 
by  Ethan  Smith  in  his  '  Vie-w  of  the  Hebrews  or 
the  Tribes  of  Israel  in  America,' " — the  import 
ance  of  the  question  'Where  are  the  ten  tribes 

541  Jewish  Encyclopedia,'  1900,  I,  495.  Manasseh  ben  Israel  in 
his  '  Hope  of  Israel,'  considered  that  the  Dispersion  was  thereby 
complete. 

25  Ethan  Smith, « View  of  the  Hebrews,'  1825,  p.  248,  note. 

26  Justin  Windsor, « Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America,' 
1889,  I.  115,  116. 

»» Ethan  Smith,  Preface,  p.  i. 


THE  SOURCES  125 

of  Israel,'  brought  about  a  speedy  sale  of  the  first 
edition.  This  work  was  published  in  Poultney, 
Vermont,  next  to  Windsor  County,  where  Joseph's 
parents  once  lived,  and  by  1825  had  circulated  to 
westernmost  New  York.  A  letter  to  the  author, 
from  a  clerical  reader  in  Erie  County,  mentions 
a  general  religious  revival  which  had  taken  place 
among  the  Senecas  seven  years  before.  Dis 
satisfied  with  their  old  rites  they  had  brought 
together  their  wise  men,  who  say  they  are  per 
suaded  they  are  the  people  of  God,  but  have  lost 
their  way.  Hence,  this  observer  concludes,  these 
Indians  are  the  outcasts  of  Israel,  for  they  have  a 
manifest  shadow  of  the  Mosaic  rituals, — the  feasts 
of  first-fruits,  and  of  ingathering;  a  day  of  atone 
ment,  and  peace  offerings. 28  The  author's  cumula 
tive  proof,  derived  from  the  accounts  of  travelers, 
is  this:29  the  Indians  must  be  the  lost  tribes  of 
Israel  because  they  have  one  origin;  their  language 
appears  Hebrew;30  they  have  acknowledged  one 
and  only  one  God;  they  are  in  tribes;  they  have 

28  Ethan  Smith,  p.  vi,  Extract  from  letter  to  the  author  from  J. 
B.  Hyde.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Indians  sometimes  resented  the 
propaganda.  Compare  the  •  Speech  of  Red  Jacket  against  the 
Foundation  of  a  Mission  among  the  Senecas  in  1805,'  in  Stedman 
and  Hutchinson,  'A  History  of  American  Literature/  1890,  4.  36. 

J9  Ethan  Smith,  p.  85. 

*°  H.  H.  Bancroft, '  Works,'  5,  89,  quotes  Meyer's  statement '  The 
name  Iowa  is  derived  from  Jehova.' 


126  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

cities  of  refuge;  they  have  sacrifices  and  anointings, 
high-priests,  festivals,  feasts  and  purifications.  The 
compiler  also  quotes  with  approval  Adair's  twenty- 
three  reasons  for  the  Indians  being  Jews. 81 

As  has  been  already  noted,  a  volume  containing 
these  arguments  was  in  the  possession  of  one 
young  Mormon  from  New  York.  But  if  there  was 
any  book,  akin  to  Joseph's  fancy,  it  was  one  pub 
lished  in  Albany  about  this  time,32  namely,— Priest's 
American  Antiquities.  An  Exhibition  of  the  Evi 
dence  that  an  ancient  population  peopled  America 
many  centuries  before  its  Discovery,  and  Inquiries 
into  their  Origin.  The  wording  of  this  title  should 
be  compared  with  a  portion  of  the  Prophet's  first 
vision;  he  says: 

I  was  informed  also  concerning  the  aboriginal  inhab 
itants  of  this  country,  and  shown  who  they  were,  and 

31  ARGUMENT,  i.  Their  division  into  tribes;  2.  Worship  of 
Jehovah ;  3.  Notions  of  a  theocracy  ;  4.  Belief  in  the  ministrations 
of  angels;  5.  Language  and  dialects;  6.  Manners  of  counting 
time ;  7.  Prophets  and  high  priests ;  8.  Festivals,  fasts  and  religious 
rites;  9.  Daily  sacrifices;  10.  Ablutions  and  anointings;  n. 
Laws  of  uncleanness ;  12.  Abstinence  from  unclean  things;  13. 
Marriages,  divorces  and  punishments  of  adultery;  14.  Several 
punishments;  15.  Cities  of  refuge;  16.  Purifications  and  cere 
monies  preparatory  to  war ;  17.  Ornaments;  18.  Manner  of  curing 
the  sick:  19.  Burial  of  the  dead;  20.  Mourning  for  their  dead; 
21.  Raising  seed  to  a  deceased  brother;  22.  Choice  of  names 
adapted  to  their  circumstances  and  the  times  ;  23.  Own  traditions. 

"  The  first  edition  appeared  in  1833 ;  two  others  followed  in  that 
year. 


THE   SOURCES  127 

from  whence  they  came; — a  brief  sketch  of  their  origin, 
progress,  civilization,  laws,  governments,  of  their  right 
eousness  and  iniquity,  and  the  blessings  of  God  being 
finally  withdrawn  from  them  as  a  people,  was  made 
known  unto  me.' 

Moreover  the  contents  of  this  book  resembles 
that  of  the  plates  of  Nephi.  The  chapter  on  the 
course  of  the  lost  ten  tribes  is  suggestive  of  the 
wanderings  of  the  Nephites.  In  1841  the  prophet, 
reviewing  a  volume  of  Mormon  evidences,  noted 
four  parallel  passages  drawn  between  Priest's  work 
and  the  Book  of  Mormon.™  The  fact  that  the  Mor 
mon  book  was  subsequently  called  in  by  Brigham 
Young,  would  excite  a  suspicion  of  Joseph's  orig 
inal  plagiarism  from  Priest's  American  Antiquities, 
except  that  the  latter  appeared  in  1833.  However 
Smith  frequently  printed  in  his  newspaper  curious 
notices  of  the  current  works  on  American  archaeology, 
and  pointed  with  triumph  to  various  'ancient 
records,'  as  they  were  dug  up  from  time  to  time.34 

33 'Times  and  Seasons,1  3,640;  Priest,  pp.  97,  160,  165,  169; 
'  Book  of  Mormon,'  (second  edition)  pp.  378,  382,  383,  479.  Smith 
borrows  these  parallels  from  Charles  Thompson's  '  Evidences  in 
proof  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  being  a  divinely  inspired  record, 
written  by  the  forefathers  of  the  natives  whom  we  call  Indians, 
(who  are  a  remnant  of  the  tribe  of  Joseph,'  etc.),  Batavia,  N.  Y. 
1841. 

34  Smith's  interest  in  Americana  is  universal ;  in  Volume  IV  of 
the  'Times  and  Seasons,'  he  notices  (p.  181)  the  six  brass  plates 
discovered  at  Kinderhook  as  giving  authenticity  to  the  « Book  of 


128    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Whether  or  not  the  boy  in  the  log  cabin  had  a 
chance  to  read  Priest's  volume  or  any  of  the  series, 
these  judaizing  theories  were  in  the  air,  and  were 
especially  prevalent  among  the  clergy.85  Hence  the 
source  of  Joseph's  antiquarian  fancies  need  not  have 
been  literary;  what  he  heard  from  the  pulpit  was 
enough  to  set  his  fancy  at  work.  In  this  western 
district  the  Society  for  Propagating  the  Gospel 
among  the  Indians  was  active,36  and  a  certain  mis 
sionary  to  these  lost  branches  was,  at  one  time,  in 
charge  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Palmyra.87 
Tradition  also  fired  the  young  boy's  brain.  His 
Uncle  Stephen  had  launched  forth  on  the  frontiers  at 
Detroit  as  an  Indian  trader.38  Moreover  three  of  the 

Mormon';  (p.  201)  he  issues  the  'Prospectus  of  the  Nauvoo 
Museum,  for  ancient  records,  manuscripts,  paintings  and  hiero 
glyphics'  ;  (p.  346)  he  notes  that  Stephen's  « Incidents  of  Travels  in 
Central  America '  has  in  two  years  gone  through  twelve  editions. 
For  the  persistent  Mormon  interest  in  antiquities  compare  '  Times 
and  Seasons,'  2,  440;  5,  755  and  S.  T.  Walker,  « Ruins  Revisited,' 
and  also  '  Archaeological  Committee  Report,'  for  later  search  for 
evidences  in  support  of  the  '  Book  of  Mormon.' 

35  Compare  the  layman  James  Buchanan,  '  Sketches,  etc.,  of  the 
North   American    Indians,'   New   York,    1824,  2,  7: — 'Affinities 
were  discovered  which  existed  nowhere  but  in  the  fancy  of  the  in 
ventor.'     Compare  also  Lf  Estrange,  'Americans  no Jewes.' 

36  See  « Signs  of  the  Times,'  1810. 

37  Hotchkin.     In  1817  the  pastor  was  D.  S.  Butrick,  'for  many 
years  a  faithful  missionary  among  the  Cherokee  Indians.' 

38 '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  31.  Parley  P.  Pratt  in  '  The  Voice 
of  Warning,'  1854,  Chapter  iv,  'Origin  of  the  American  Indians/ 
quotes  both  Priest  and  Boudinot. 


THE   SOURCES  129 

Green  Mountain  villages,  in  which  his  family  once 
sojourned,  had  been  destroyed  by  the  savages  not  a 
generation  before  his  birth;39  in  New  York  the 
Cherry  Valley  massacre  was  still  remembered,40  and 
in  1805  an  itinerant  Methodist  said  that  'the  shining 
tomahawk  and  the  glittering  scalping-knife  were 
within  sight.'  "  These  things  lay  back  of  the  por 
trayal  of  the  Lamanites  as  '  wicked,  wild  and  fero 
cious, — a  people  who  delighted  in  murdering  the 
Nephites  and  robbing  and  plundering  them.'42  Be 
sides  local  hearsay,  the  youth  had  his  own  eyes  to 
give  him  information;  around  him  lay  the  reserva 
tions  of  the  Six  Nations  containing,  at  this  time, 
between  three  and  four  thousand  warriors.43  Nat 
urally  it  was  his  own  knowledge  of  the  Iroquois  that 
he  transferred  to  the  ancient  inhabitants. 

Finally  one  of  his  occupations  provided  him  with 
an  excuse  for  mystification.  He  confesses,  with 
some  reluctance,  that  he  was  hired  as  a  money 
digger.4*  Since  Indian  mounds  were  the  favorite 

39  Vermont  Gazeteer,  pp.  977,  1116.     Tunbridge,  Randolph  and 
Royalton  were  sacked  and  burned  by  the  Indians  in  1780  on  their 
return  to  Canada. 

40  DeWitt  Clinton,  p.  377. 

41  H.  Stevens,  «  History  of  American  Methodism,'  p.  451. 
42 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  284,  435. 

43 'United  States  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,' 
1853,  p.  15.  In  1846  there  were  3,843  Iroquois  in  New  York  state. 

44 «  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  100 ;  '  Hence  arose  the  very  preva 
lent  story  of  my  being  a  money  digger.'  This  refers  to  the  opera- 


130    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

haunts  of  money  diggers,45  this  search  for  hidden 
treasure  furnishes  the  clue  to  Joseph's  passion  for 
the  antique.  He  mixed  up  what  he  knew  about 
living  Indians,  with  what  he  could  gather  about  the 
dead  ones,  and  the  amalgam  was  the  angel  Moroni's 
'  brief  sketch  concerning  the  aboriginal  inhabitants 
of  this  country.'  The  mixture  of  the  two  elements, 
present  and  past,  is  shown  by  the  popular  errors 
embedded  in  the  narrative.  The  great  number  of 
skeletons  in  the  burial  mounds  were  not  due  to  ter 
rible  massacres,46  but  to  the  Indian  custom  of  col 
lecting  the  bones  of  their  dead  at  stated  times.47  So 
with  the  Indian  'forts '  or  'castles,'  described  as  the 
'high  places  of  Israel.'48  In  1615  Champlain  cited 
those  palisaded  works.49  They  were  not  prehis 
toric,  but  were  taught  to  the  natives  by  nameless 
adventurers  from  Europe.  So  the  Iroquois  body- 
coverings  of  thick  hide,  such  as  the  Nephites  wore, 
were  an  imitation  of  European  armor.50  And  the 

tions  of  1825.  Joseph's  father-in-law,  Josiah  Stoal,  of  Susquehanna 
County,  Pa.,  hired  Joseph  to  hunt  for  a  lost  Spanish  silver  mine 
with  his  seer  stone  or  crystal.  Compare  Appendix  III  and  « Bio 
graphical  Sketches,'  p.  92. 

45  Squier,  p.  41. 

46 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  p.  560.  Such  as  when  the  slain  between 
Nephites  and  Lamanites  amounts  to  230,000. 

47  Squier,  p.  68. 

48  Ethan  Smith,  p.  201. 

49  Champlain, '  Oeuvres,'  Quebec,  1870,  5,  261,— «  Facon  de  guer- 
royer  des  Sauvages.' 

50  F.  S.  Dellenbaugh,  « The  North  American  Indians  of  Yester 
day,'  1901,  p.  260. 


THE   SOURCES  131 

numerous  hatchets  and  arrow-heads  in  Joseph's 
fabulous  Zarahemla,  were  to  be  found  on  the  sites 
of  Kenandaga  and  Seneca  villages  of  the  seven 
teenth  century.51  The  explanation  of  scientific  in 
vestigators  being  unknown  at  that  time,  there  was 
nothing  to  prevent  the  throwing  of  an  air  of 
primitive  mystery  around  more  or  less  historic 
facts.  So  in  Joseph's  lucubrations  the  mounds 
which  the  Indians  regarded  with  great  reverence, 
and  of  which  they  had  lost  the  tradition,62  were 
built  by  Moroni  as  defenses  of  his  people  against 
the  Lamanites;  while  the  caches  of  arms  were  due 
to  the  penitent  Lamanites  burying  their  weapons 
rather  than  commit  sin.63 

In  the  mental  habits  attributed  to  his  aborigines  the 
author's  inventive  powers  fail,  and  he  unwittingly 
falls  back  on  current  thought.  The  religious  ideas 
of  the  Lamanites  were  not  archaic  and  pagan,  but 
only  what  Joseph's  contemporaries  erroneously  at 
tributed  to  the  natives.  He  said  the  Lamanites  be 
lieved  in  a  great  spirit; 54  a  writer  of  the  same  dec 
ade  cites,  among  the  manners  and  customs  of  the 
various  Indian  tribes, — their  belief  in  a  great 

51  Squier,  p.  9. 

62  D.  G.  Brinton  claimed  that  tradition  among  the  Indians  is  un 
trustworthy  after  three  generations.  Lectures  at  Yale  University, 
1898. 

53 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  383,  308. 

54 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  p.  287. 


132    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

spirit.55  The  modern  critic  says  that  the  primitive 
red  man  had  no  idea  of  a  great  spirit,  and  that  the  ob 
servations  of  early  writers  were  made  upon  savages 
who  had  been  for  generations  in  contact  with  the 
doctrines  of  Christianity.56  This  interpretation  of  the 
religious  opinions  of  the  Indians,  after  preconceived 
ideas  of  the  times,  offers  another  point  of  contact 
between  the  Booh  of  Mormon  and  the  author's  sur 
roundings.  Like  the  Senecas,  thirty  miles  away, 
who  had  lately  performed  the  sacrifice  of  the  white 
dog  67  Joseph's  Lamanites  '  did  worship  idols.'  And 
yet,  at  the  same  time,  they  held  the  various  beliefs 
of  local  Presbyterians,  Baptists  and  Methodists. 

Strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  earliest  tribes  were 
Old  School  Presbyterians.  If  the  speech  of  Nephi, 
to  his  brethren,  be  compared  with  the  Westminster 
Standards,  a  close  parallelism  will  be  disclosed.58 

55  J.  D.  Hunter,  '  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Various  Indian 
Tribes/  1823,  p.  222. 

66  F.  Parkman,  « The  Jesuits  in  North  America,'  1896,  p.  Ixxiv. 

67  O'Reilley,  p.  276.     This  had  happened  at  Rochester  within 
ten  years. 

58[  'Book  of  Mormon,'  p.  15.  ['Confession  of  Faith,'  chap- 

Nephi   interprets  the  dream  of  ters  32  and  33, — «  Of  the  state 

the  tree  and  river  :]  '  Doth  this  of  Man  after  Death  ' ;  «  Of  the 

mean  the  final  state  of  the  soul  Last  Judgment ' :]  '  After  death 

after   the   death  of  the  body  ?  the  souls  of  the  wicked  are  cast 

...  It  was  a  representation  of  into  hell,  where  they  remain  in 

that  awful  hell,   prepared    for  torments,  reserved  to  the  judg- 

the  wicked,  and  the  devil  is  the  ment    of    the   great   day.      In 

preparator  of  it.     And  the  jus-  which  day  all  persons  shall  ap- 


THE  SOURCES 


133 


In  all  this  the  author's  borrowings  were  the  easiest 
possible.  Even  if  the  rest  of  the  family  did  not  re 
main  good  Presbyterians,59  the  Westminster  Confes 
sion  was  to  be  had  in  other  ways;  it  appeared, 
for  instance,  in  the  frequent  reprints  of  the  New 
England  Primer,  so  that  as  children  thumbed 
its  quaint  pages,  they  sucked  in  Calvinism.60  But 
if  the  young  prophet  had  once  learned  what  '  man's 
chief  end  '  was,  he  did  not  continue  to  believe  that 
'In  Adam's  Fall  we  sinned  all';  early  in  his  book 
he  began  to  drift  towards  Universalism,  saying  that 


tice  of  God  did  also  divide  the 
wicked  from  the  righteous  for 
ever  and  ever.  It  was  a  repre 
sentation  of  things  both  temporal 
and  spiritual ;  for  the  day  should 
come  that  they  must  be  judged 
of  their  works.  Wherefore, 
they  must  be  brought  to  stand 
before  God,  and,  if  their  works 
be  filthy,  they  cannot  dwell  in 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  Where 
fore,  the  final  state  of  the  souls 
of  men  is  to  dwell  in  the  King 
dom  of  God,  or  to  be  cast  out 
because  of  that  justice  of  which 
I  have  spoken.' 

59 « Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  74. 

60 « The  Assembly  of  Divines'  Catechism  '  was  to  be  found  in  the 
current  reprints  of  the  New  England  Primer.  Compare  edition 
of  1806. 


pear  before  the  tribunal  of 
Christ,  to  give  an  account  of 
their  thoughts,  words  and  deeds, 
and  to  receive  according  to  what 
they  have  done  in  the  body, 
whether  good  or  evil.  The  end 
of  God's  appointing  this  day  is 
for  the  manifestation  of  His  jus 
tice.  For  then  shall  the  right 
eous  go  into  everlasting  life,  but 
the  wicked  shall  be  cast  into 
eternal  torments.' 


134    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

'the  way  is  prepared  from  the  fall  of  man,'  and 
that  '  salvation  is  free  for  all.'61 

This  marked  transition  in  habits  of  thought  is  to  be 
gathered  from  the  elements  of  the  reaction.  The 
Book  of  Mormon  is  said  to  present  orthodox  Trinitar- 
ianism;  the  reverse  is  the  truth:  it  is  a  hodge-podge 
of  heterodoxy.  How  the  author  came  by  the  variant 
doctrines  is  a  pertinent  question,  for  it  shows  his 
absolute  dependence  on  his  own  times.  Absurd 
attempts  have  been  made  to  trace  to  the  old  world, 


61  By  comparing  the  speech  of  Lehi  with  the  « Confession,'  chap 
ters  3  and  17,  there  are  presented  some  of  the  agreements  and  dis 
agreements  of  the  « Book  of  Mormon '  with  the  five  points  of 
Calvinism  : — Absolute  predestination  is  implied  in  the  phrase — 
«  God's  eternal  purposes,'  but  negatived  in  the  explanation, — '  God 
to  bring  about  His  eternal  purposes  in  the  end  of  man,  gave  unto 
man  that  he  should  act  for  himself.'  Total  Depravity  is  set  forth  in 
the  sentence — '  God  shewed  unto  all  men  that  they  were  lost,  be 
cause  of  the  transgression  of  their  parents ' ;  but  this  statement  is 
limited  by  another,  namely  that — « men  are  instructed  sufficiently 
that  they  know  good  from  evil.'  Of  the  remaining  three  points, 
none  are  here  upheld  :  there  is  nothing  about  Irresistible  Grace 
and  its  correlate,  the  Perseverance  of  the  Saints, — '  that  God  from 
His  absolute  sovereignty  bringeth  whom  He  will  unto  salvation,  and 
that  the  elect  can  neither  totally  nor  finally  fall  away  from  the  state 
of  grace.'  Both  these  articles  are  contradicted  by  one  Mormon  sen 
tence  ;  '  men  are  free  forever  to  act  for  themselves  and  not  to  be 
acted  upon.'  So  is  it  with  the  fifth  point — of  Particular  Redemp 
tion, — « the  appointment  of  the  elect  unto  glory,  and  of  the  rest  of 
mankind  unto  dishonor  and  wrath.'  In  contrast  with  this,  there  is 
a  notable  drift  towards  Universalism, — '  the  way  is  prepared  from 
the  fall  of  man,  and  salvation  is  free ;  because  of  the  intercession 
for  all,  all  men  come  unto  God.' 


THE   SOURCES  135 

the  peculiar  tenets  of  the  American  sectary.62  It  is 
true  that  towards  the  five  points  of  Calvinism,  he 
had  an  Arminian  attitude,  but  Joseph  Smith  knew 
as  little  about  Arminius  as  Arminius  did  about 
Joseph  Smith.  It  was  from  the  voice  of  the  wilder 
ness  preacher  that  he  obtained  notions  at  variance 
with  Presbyterian  dogma.  A  document  of  the 
times  gives  a  lively  idea  of  local  theologic  Donny- 
brook  fairs.  In  the  Western  Memorial  of  1834,  the 
Presbytery  of  Geneva  was  charged  by  the  General 
Assembly  with  'sixteen  gross  errors  in  doctrine.'63 
In  answer,  it  was  said  that  these  errors  were  ad 
vanced  and  strenuously  propagated  in  Western  New 
York,  but  not  by  Presbyterians.  One  apologist 
adds,64  in  defense,  that  the  local  churches,  in  good 
standing,  still  believed  in  original  sin,  infant  dam- 

62  For  the  attempt  of  a  German  writer  to  resolve  Mormonism 
into  a  conscious  syncretism  of  Gnosticism,  Mohammedanism,  etc., 
see  M.  Busch,  ' Die  Mormonen,  Ihr  Prophet,  Ihr  Staat  und 
Ihr  Glaube,'  Leipsic,  1855,  s.  158,  seq.  Contrast  'Times  and 
Seasons,'  2,  305, 'There  is  error  in  comparing  the  "Book  of 
Mormon  "  to  the  "  Koran  "  of  Mahomet.  Mahomet  had  not  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  by  which  the  ancients  were 
constituted  seers.'  It  was  after  Smith's  death  that  it  was  said, 
«  Nauvoo  and  Carthage  will  become  the  Mecca  and  Medina  of  the 
Mormon  Prophet.'  '  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  621. 

63 '  Digest  of  the  Acts  and  Deliverances,'  1861^.483.  The 
General  Assembly  of  1837  adjudge  that  the  four  synods  of  Gene- 
see,  Geneva,  Utica  and  Western  Reserve  were  '  out  of  connection 
with  the  Presbyterian  Church.' 

64  Hotchkin,  p.  234. 


136    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

nation,  and  man's  inability  to  obey  the  commands 
of  God.  Another  writer 65  goes  deeper,  and  gives 
reasons  for  the  undermining  of  High  Calvinism. 
At  this  time,  he  observes,  there  was  a  suspicion 
that  Western  New  York  was  altogether  unsound; 
in  the  conflict  between  the  old  doctrines  and  the 
new  metaphysics,  dangerous  errors  came  through 
the  candidates  sent  out  as  home  missionaries,66  with 
the  consequence  that  there  was  an  alarming  loose 
ness  among  young  preachers. 

Now  all  this  had  no  small  bearing  on  the  mentality 
of  the  founder  of  Mormonism.  The  prophet  of  the 
backwoods  was  at  an  infinite  remove  from  a 
thinker  like  Channing  in  his  Moral  Argument 
against  Calvinism.61  Yet  the  freer  thought  of  the 
East  had  already  reached  these  parts.  It  was  to 
the  '  New  England  influence  '  that  the  Presbyterians 
hereabouts  charged  these  '  dangerous  errors.' 68  Con 
sidering  the  number  of  itinerants  from  the  various 

65  E.   H.   Gillet,  'History   of  the  Presbyterian   Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America,'  1864,  2,  452. 

66  By  the  Berkshire,  Hampshire,  Connecticut  and  other  societies. 
For  complete  list  see  J.  H.  Dill,  «  Congregationalism  in  Western 
New  York;  Its  Rise,  Decline  and  Revival,'  1858,  p.  10. 

67  John  Nichol,  «  American  Literature,'  1882,  p.  132  ff: — 'New 
England  Rationalism.' 

68Gillett,  2,  452,  cites  the  various  overtures  and  deliverances. 
Drs.  Taylor  and  Dwight  were  counted  as  «  dangerous  '  but  Dr. 
Samuel  Hopkins  was  held  chiefly  responsible  for  the  fact  that 
« within  the  bounds  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  there  were  many, 
who  supported,  either  wholly  or  in  part,  Hopkintonian  Sentiments.' 


THE   SOURCES  137 

home  missionary  societies  at  work  in  the  Genesee 
country,  it  was  not  surprising  that  these  new 
views  ultimately  found  a  devious  way  into  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  The  steps  between  source  and 
destination  may  be  traced  with  some  assurance,69 — 
with  New  England  as  the  'fountain  head  of  heresy,' 
and  the  Geneva  presbytery  as  the  channel,  a  few 
trickles  of  rationalism  were  bound  to  seep  into 
Joseph's  skull.  70 

69  For  the  '  partial  disintegration  of  Calvinism  in  communities 
where  it  has  long  been  established,'  compare  George  P.  Fisher, 
'History  of  Christian  Doctrine,'  1896,  p.  549.  See  also  A.  H. 
Strong,  '  Systematic  Theology,'  1893,  Table  of  Old  School  and 
New  School  Views;  compare  also  Lewis  Cheesman,  'Differences 
between  Old  and  New  School  Presbyterians,'  1848,  p.  5  :  « heresies 
privily  brought  in  have  corrupted  a  large  part  of  the  Presbyterian 
communion  and  are  still  artfully  concealed  under  various  dis 
guises.'  That  Hopkins  was  the  representative  intermediary  is 
evident  from  the  list  of  his  ninety-eight  subscribers  in  New  York 
State,  as  printed  in  his  '  System  of  Doctrines,'  1793.  Compare 
Nathan  Bangs,  'Errors  of  Hopkinsianism,'  New  York,  1815;  also, 
E.  S.  Ely,  « A  contrast  between  Calvinism  and  Hopkinsianism,' 
New  York,  1811.  From  the  latter  it  may  be  seen  how  Hopkins' 
views  came  to  be  verbally  cited,  among  the  '  sixteen  gross  errors,' 
of  the  Western  Memorial. 

70 By  comparing  the  'Book  of  Mormon,'  beginning  with  II 
Nephi,  with  the  following  table,  it  can  be  seen  how  Smith  came  to 
modify  the  Five  Points  into  a  Predestination  not  absolute,  a  De 
pravity  not  total,  a  Grace  not  irresistible  and  so  on. 

HOPKINS'  WORKS  WESTERN  MEMORIAL 

i,  341.  '  Man  has  natural  abil-  §  9.  '  Man  is  in  full  possession 

ity  to  perform  every  act  which  of  all  the  ability  necessary  to  a 

God  requires  of  him.  full    compliance    with    all    the 

I,  261.  Men  are  sinners  from  commands  of  God. 


138     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 


birth  through  a  divine  constitu 
tion,  but  are  capable  of  dis 
cerning  the  right  and  wrong. 

i,  211,  235.  Men  will  begin 
their  existence  as  sinners  but 
their  sin  is  their  own  and  a  free 
act.' 


§  6.  The  posterity  of  Adam 
will  always  begin  to  sin,  when 
they  begin  to  exercise  moral 
agency,  but  that  original  sin 
does  not  include  a  sinful  bias. 

§§6  and  14.  Men  will  always 
begin  to  sin  when  they  begin  to 
exercise  moral  agency  but  with 
out  impairing  the  same.' 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY 

IN  following  up  the  sources  of  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon,  there  is  given  a  reconnaissance  map  of  the 
author's  mind.  From  the  way  he  took  in  both  cur 
rent  archaeology  and  its  errors,  and  Calvinism  and  its 
contradictions,  it  is  evident  that,  while  his  mental 
horizon  was  widening,  his  receptivity  was  greater 
than  his  reasoning,  his  imagination  stronger  than  his 
discrimination.  Furthermore,  a  volume  that  took 
at  least  two  years  to  excogitate,  plus  nearly  two 
years  to  write,  should  manifest  some  logical  de 
velopment.  Such  is  not  the  fact:  in  I  Nephi  the 
writer  swallowed  Calvinism  in  a  lump,  in  II  Nephi 
he  mixed  with  it  some  liberalism,  but  there  the 
leavening  process  stopped.  In  the  midst  of  seeming 
consistency  there  appear  undigested  fragments. 
One  such  is  the  speculation  regarding  the  useful 
ness  of  evil.  The  prophet  falls  foul  of  the  problem 
of  sin  and  this  is  his  solution: — 

*  It  must  needs  be,  that  there  is  an  opposition  in  all 
things.  If  not  so,  my  first  born  in  the  wilderness, 
righteousness  could  not  be  brought  to  pass;  neither 

141 


142    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

wickedness;  neither  holiness  nor  misery;  neither  good 
nor  bad.  Wherefore,  all  things  must  needs  be  a  com 
pound  in  one;  wherefore,  if  it  should  be  one  body,  it 
must  needs  remain  as  dead,  having  no  life,  neither  death 
nor  corruption,  nor  incorruption,  happiness  nor  misery, 
neither  sense  nor  insensibility.  Wherefore,  it  must 
needs  have  been  created  for  a  thing  of  nought ;  where 
fore,  there  would  have  been  no  purpose  in  the  end  of  its 
creation.  Wherefore,  this  thing  must  needs  destroy  the 
wisdom  of  God,  and  His  eternal  purposes ;  and  also,  the 
power,  and  the  mercy,  and  the  justice  of  God.  And  if 
ye  shall  say  there  is  no  law,  ye  shall  also  say  there  is  no 
sin.  And  if  ye  shall  say  there  is  no  sin,  ye  shall  also  say 
there  is  no  righteousness.  And  if  there  be  no  righteous 
ness,  there  be  no  happiness.  And  if  there  be  no  right 
eousness  nor  happiness,  there  be  no  punishment  nor 
misery.  And  if  these  things  are  not,  there  is  no  God. 
And  if  there  is  no  God,  we  are  not,  neither  the  earth : 
for  there  could  have  been  no  creation  of  things,  neither 
to  act  nor  to  be  acted  upon ;  wherefore,  all  things  must 
have  vanished  away.' l 

This  is  a  fair  sample  of  Joseph's  early  reasoning 
powers,  yet  what  he  lacked  in  logic  he  made  up  in 
feeling.  Of  impulsive  nature,  taking  up  thoughts 
as  he  found  them  in  the  air,  he  was  forced  at  last 
into  an  emotional  revolt  against  Calvinism.  These 
were  the  days  of  total  depravity,  when  the  preacher 
affirmed  that  'Adam's  sin,  being  made  ours  by  im 
putation,  has  exposed  innumerable  infants  to  Divine 

1  Book  of  Mormon/  pp.  62,  63.     Speech  of  Nephi. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   143 

wrath.2  There  was  of  course  a  public  reaction 
against  such  teachings,3  shown  in  the  increase  of 
more  humane  sentiments.*  But  since  these  moving 
forces  were,  as  yet,  in  the  background,  it  speaks 
well  for  the  young  prophet's  heart,  if  not  for  his 
head,  that  he  could  misinterpret  in  such  kindly 
fashion  the  abstract  injustice  of  dogma.  Like  an 
other  writer,  not  far  off,  he  makes  a  short  apology 
for  infants.5  In  the  book  of  Mosiah,  he  says, 
'  infants  fall  in  Adam,  or  in  nature,  yet  none  shall  be 
found  blameless  before  God,  except  it  be  little  chil 
dren.  ' 6 


'Sermon  of  Dr.  Twiss,  prolocutor  of  the  General  Assembly, 
from  the  Christian  Disciple,  May  and  June  1823,  quoted  in  G.  E. 
Ellis,  «  Half  Century  of  the  Unitarian  Controversy,'  1857,  p.  82. 

3Hotchkin,  p.  136:  'Under  the  plain,  unadulterated  and  un 
adorned  exhibitions  of  gospel  truth,  small  children,  in  connexion 
with  confirmed  infidels  and  bold  blasphemers,  were  heard  mingling 
their  cries  for  mercy.' 

*  Compare  Henry  Adams, '  History  of  the  United  States,'  1891,  pp. 
239,  240 : — '  In  the  second  administration  of  Madison  the  struggle  for 
existence  was  mitigated ;  its  first  effect  was  the  increasing  cheer 
fulness  of  religion.  .  .  .  For  the  first  time  in  history,  great 
bodies  of  men  turned  aside  from  the  old  religion,  giving  no  better 
reason  than  it  required  them  to  believe  in  a  cruel  Deity.' 

s  John  Read,  «A  Short  Apology  for  Infants,'  Poughkeepsie, 
New  York,  1816. 

61  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  68-9,  compare  also  : — (168)  «  The  in 
fant  perisheth  not  that  dieth  in  his  infancy;  .(197)  And  little 
children  also  have  eternal  life;  (617)  Little  children  cannot 
repent,  wherefore  it  is  an  awful  wickedness  to  deny  the  pure 
mercies  of  God  unto  them.' 


144    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Thus  far  it  is  clear  that  the  author  could  manage  a 
metaphor  better  than  a  syllogism.  But  this  is  only 
a  tenth  part  of  the  ancient  record,  the  remainder  of 
which,  according  to  the  revelation  of  July,  1828, 
'  does  contain  all  those  parts  of  my  gospel,  which 
my  holy  prophets  desired  should  come  forth  unto 
this  people.'  This  body  of  divinity  is  what  Smith 
constantly  referred  to  as  the  '  plain  and  simple  gos 
pel.'  That  it  was  not  plain  is  seen  from  its  distor 
tions  of  Presbyterianism,  and  that  it  was  not  simple 
from  its  other  dogmatic  borrowings.  In  evidence, 
one  need  but  briefly  glance  at  the  other  two  sects 
which  Joseph  mentioned  at  the  time  of  his  first 
vision.  With  the  spread  of  Baptist  principles  at  this 
time,7  and  with  seven  varieties  of  the  denomination 
existing  near  by,8  it  is  natural  that  there  should  be 
set  forth  such  variations  as  adult  baptism,  total  im 
mersion  and  baptism  unto  repentance.9  Further 
more,  in  this  Western  Circuit,  there  was  another 


'  T.  F.  Curtis,  « The  Progress  of  Baptist  Principles  in  the  last 
One  Hundred  Years,'  1855. 

s  Near  Ithaca  there  were  '  Hard  Shell/  '  Free  Will,'  and  «  Seventh 
Day  '  Baptists,  also  «  Foot  Washers,'  '  Christ-ians  '  and  '  Campbell- 
ites.'  Compare  also  J.  Chadvvick,  '  New  Light  on  the  Subject  of 
Infant  Baptism,'  1832,  Geneva,  Cayuga  County,  N.  Y. 

9 'Book  of  Mormon,'  (616)  'It  is  solemn  mockery  before 
God  that  ye  should  baptize  little  children  ' ;  (503)  « Ye  shall 
immerse  them  in  water ' ;  (494)  '  Many  were  baptized  unto 
repentance.' 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   145 

denomination  of  larger  numbers,10  and  of  greater 
influence  upon  the  youthful  convert.  In  after  years 
Smith  acknowledged  that  in  1820  he  was  'some 
what  partial  to  the  Methodist  sect.' "  This  admis 
sion  goes  far  to  explain  the  rhetorical  tone  of  his 
book,— the  peculiarity  that  the  speeches  of  the  an 
cient  prophets  are  filled  with  camp-meeting  echoes, 
and  catchwords  of  the  old-time  Methodist  exhorter. 
Take  for  example  the  following: 

'  And  now  it  came  to  pass  that  after  Alma  had 
spoken  these  words  unto  them,  he  sat  down  upon  the 
ground,  and  Amulek  arose  and  began  to  teach  them,  say 
ing  :  My  brethren,  I  think  that  it  is  impossible  that  ye 
should  be  ignorant  of  the  things  which  have  been  spoken 
concerning  the  coming  of  Christ,  who  is  taught  by  us  to 
be  the  Son  of  God ;  yea,  I  know  that  these  things  were 
taught  unto  you,  bountifully,  before  your  dissention  from 
among  us,  and  as  ye  have  desired  of  my  beloved  brother, 
that  he  should  make  known  unto  you  what  ye  should  do, 
because  of  your  afflictions;  and  he  hath  spoken  some 
what  unto  you  to  prepare  your  minds ;  yea,  and  he  hath 
exhorted  you  unto  faith,  and  to  patience ;  yea,  even  that 
ye  would  have  so  much  faith  as  even  to  plant  the  word  in 
your  hearts,  that  ye  may  try  the  experiment  of  its  good 
ness.  .  .  . 

Now  there  is  not  any  man  that  can  sacrifice  his  own 
blood,  which  will  atone  for  the  sins  of  another.  Now  if 

10  Methodists  claimed  an  enrollment  of  half  a  million  in  the 
United  States  in  1820.  'Encyclopaedia  Brittanica,'  article, '  Meth 
odism.' 

11 «  Biographical  Sketches/  p.  75. 


146    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

a  man  murdereth,  behold,  will  our  law,  which  is  just, 
take  the  life  of  his  brother?  I  say  unto  you,  Nay.  But 
the  law  requireth  the  life  of  him  who  hath  murdered ; 
therefore  there  can  be  nothing,  which  is  short  of  an  Infi 
nite  atonement,  which  will  suffice  for  the  sins  of  the 
world ;  therefore  it  is  expedient  that  there  should  be  a 
great  and  last  sacrifice :  .  .  .  this  being  the  intent 
of  this  last  sacrifice,  to  bring  about  the  bowels  of  mercy, 
which  overpowereth  justice  and  bringeth  about  means 
unto  men  that  they  may  have  faith  unto  repentance. 
And  thus  mercy  can  satisfy  the  demands  of  justice,  and 
encircles  them  in  the  arms  of  safety,  while  he  that  exer- 
ciseth  no  faith  unto  repentance,  is  exposed  to  the  whole 
law  of  the  demands  of  justice ;  therefore,  only  unto  him 
that  hath  faith  unto  repentance,  is  brought  about  the 
great  and  Eternal  plan  of  redemption.  Therefore  may 
God  grant  unto  you,  my  brethren,  that  ye  may  begin  to 
exercise  your  faith  unto  repentance,  that  ye  begin  to  call 
upon  His  holy  name,  that  He  would  have  mercy  upon 
you ;  yea,  cry  unto  Him  for  mercy ;  for  He  is  mighty  to 
save;  yea,  humble  yourselves,  and  continue  in  prayer 
unto  Him ;  cry  unto  Him  when  ye  are  in  your  fields ;  yea, 
over  all  your  flocks ;  cry  unto  Him  in  your  houses,  yea, 
over  all  your  household,  both  morning,  midday,  and 
evening;  yea,  cry  unto  Him  against  the  power  of  your 
enemies ;  yea,  cry  unto  Him  against  the  Devil,  who  is  an 
enemy  to  all  righteousness.  And  now  as  I  said  unto  you 
before,  as  ye  have  had  so  many  witnesses,  therefore  I  be 
seech  of  you,  that  ye  do  not  procrastinate  the  day  of 
your  repentance  until  the  end ;  for  after  this  day  of  life, 
which  is  given  us  to  prepare  for  eternity,  behold,  if  we 
do  not  improve  our  time  while  in  this  life,  then  cometh 
the  night  of  darkness,  wherein  there  can  be  no  labor  per- 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   147 

formed.  Ye  cannot  say,  when  ye  are  brought  to  that 
awful  crisis,  that  I  will  repent,  that  I  will  return  to  my 
God.  Nay,  ye  cannot  say  this;  for  that  same  spirit 
which  doth  possess  your  bodies  at  the  time  that  ye  go  out 
of  this  life,  that  same  spirit  will  have  power  to  possess 
your  body  in  that  eternal  world.'  ia 

Amulek's  speech,  with  its  offer  of  a  present,  free 
and  full  salvation,  is  reminiscent  of  the  Wesleyan 
pietism  once  taught  in  Palmyra.13  Elsewhere  in  the 
book  there  are  the  more  ordinary  Methodist  teach 
ings,  as  to  backsliding  and  restoration.14  Yet  on  the 
whole,  the  influence  here  exerted  was  more  prac 
tical  than  theoretical;  one  cause  of  the  rapid  spread 
of  Mormonism  was  its  partial  adaptation  of  the 
ways  and  means  of  Methodism.  Out  of  the  lattefs 
marvelous  organization  of  local  and  itinerant  clergy, 
with  their  various  conferences,  societies  and  circuits, 
the  founder  of  the  church  of  the  Latter-day  Saints 
extracted  a  dislocated  hierarchy  with  unprecedented 
functions.  What  were  the  offices  and  duties  of 
Mormon  apostles  and  elders,  evangelists  and  bish 
ops,  priests  and  teachers  and  deacons,  may  be  ob 
scurely  seen  in  the  last  of  the  fourteen  books. 

12 «  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  335-8. 

13  Hotchkin,  p.  375.     In  1807,  at  Palmyra,  the  preacher  was  an 
English  Wesleyan. 

14  «  Book  of  Mormon,'  (64)  « That  they  might  repent,  their  state 
became   a  state  of  probation';    (551)    'The  day  of  grace  was 
passed  with  them.     They  did  not  come  with  contrite  hearts.1 


148    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Judging  from  a  parallel  revelation  given  in  June, 
1830, 15  this  little  book  of  Mormon  is  essentially  a 
book  of  discipline  and  has  presumably  been  added 
as  an  afterthought.16 

Without  entering  the  penumbra  of  minor  creeds,17 
some  idea  has  been  gained  of  '  the  confusion  and 
strife  among  the  different  denominations,'  in  Joseph's 
fifteenth  year.  It  is  now  ten  years  later  and  he  has 
done  little  to  reconcile  the  differences;  instead  he  has 
but  transferred  to  paper  his  own  obfustication;  his 
ancient  record,  like  an  old-fashioned  mirror,  gives 
back  images  vague  and  ill  defined. 

To  complete  the  framework  of  environment,  and 
to  show  how  it  quadrates  with  the  book,  it  is  need 
ful  to  examine  a  few  incidental  references,  certain 
semi-political  movements  which  disturbed  the  new 
settlements.  These  were, — fear  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  hatred  of  Infidelity  and  the  agitation  against 
Free  Masonry.  The  strongest  hints  against  Roman 
Catholicism  occur  early  in  the  book,  such  as  in  the 
preface  of  Nephi's  vision  of  the  future  of  America: — 

15 '  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  24. 

16 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  p.  609,  <  Wherefore,  I  write  a  few  more 
things,  contrary  to  that  which  I  had  supposed ;  for  I  had  sup 
posed  not  to  have  written  any  more;  but  I  write  a  few  more 
things,  that  perhaps  they  may  be  of  worth  unto  my  brethren,  the 
Lamanites,  in  some  future  day  according  to  the  will  of  the  Lord.' 

17  For  a  general  tirade  against  the  sects,  compare  «  Book  of  Mor 
mon,'  566, '  O  ye  wicked  and  perverse.  ...  O  ye  pollutions,  ye 
hypocrites,  ye  teachers,'  etc. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY        149 

'  And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  saw  among  the  nations  of 
the  Gentiles  the  foundation  of  a  great  church.  And  the 
angel  said  unto  me,  Behold  the  foundation  of  a  church, 
which  is  most  abominable  above  all  other  churches,  which 
slayeth  the  saints  of  God,  yea,  and  tortureth  them  and 
bindeth  them  down,  and  yoketh  them  with  a  yoke  of  iron, 
and  bringeth  them  down  into  captivity. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  I  beheld  this  great  and  abomi 
nable  church;  and  I  saw  the  devil  that  he  was  the 
founder  of  it.  And  I  also  saw  gold,  and  silver,  and 
silks,  and  scarlets,  and  fine  twined  linen,  and  all  manner 
of  precious  clothing ;  and  I  saw  many  harlots.  And  the 
angel  spake  unto  me,  saying,  Behold  the  gold,  and  the 
silver,  and  the  silks,  and  the  scarlets,  and  the  fine  twined 
linen,  and  the  precious  clothing,  and  the  harlots,  are  the 
desires  of  this  great  and  abominable  church  \  and  also 
for  the  praise  of  the  world,  do  they  destroy  the  Saints  of 
God,  and  bring  them  down  into  captivity. ' 18 

This  covert  and  virulent  attack  may  perhaps  be 
traced  to  Joseph's  reading;  for  it  is  in  keeping  with 
the  sentiments  of  the  day.  In  1831,  the  prophet 
condescended  to  approve  of  Fox's  Booh  of  Martyrs.19 

181  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  25,  26.  Compare  also  31,  56, 113, 117, 
120,  234,  322,  337. 

19  E.  Stevenson,  « Reminiscences  of  Joseph  the  Prophet,'  p.  5  : 
« In  parting  from  under  our  roof,  the  prophet  expressed  a  desire  to 
have  a  loan  of  a  large  English  "  Book  of  Martyrs,"  which  we  pos 
sessed,  promising  to  return  it  to  us  when  he  should  meet  us  again 
in  Zion,  in  the  State  of  Missouri,  which  he  did,  and  on  returning  it 
said,  "  I  have  by  the  aid  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  seen  those 
martyrs,  and  they  were  honest,  devoted  followers  of  Christ,  accord 
ing  to  the  light  they  possessed,  and  they  will  be  saved." ' 


ISO    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

If  before  this  he  had  not  run  across  one  of  the  popu 
lar  '  Cruelty  Books,'  yet,  as  a  boy,  it  is  not  unlikely 
that  he  had  a  look  at  the  ubiquitous  New  England 
Primer  with  its  gruesome  woodcuts  of  the  victims 
of  Bloody  Mary,  burning  at  the  stake.20  At  any 
rate,  the  young  convert's  spiritual  advisers  fomented 
the  hatred  of  Roman  Catholics.  Any  back-country 
exhorter  was  welcome  to  throw  a  stick  at  the  Man 
of  Sin,  while  the  anti-popery  campaign  literature 
comprised  works  fit  only  for  the  expurgated  list  of 
decency." 

But  in  this  era  of  political  good  feeling,  bigotry 
did  not  stop  with  words.  On  the  very  field,  where 
two  centuries  before  Brebeuf  and  other  Jesuit  mis 
sionaries  had  suffered  death  at  the  hands  of  the  sav 
ages,"  a  Protestant  family,  it  was  alleged,  now  ran 
a  fearful  risk  in  harboring  a  Romanist."  Finally  the 

20  Compare  P.  L.  Ford, « The  New  England  Primer  ' ;  various  cuts 
of  the  Man  of  Sin.     The  edition  of  1779  contains  a  picture  of  the 
burning  of  Mr.  John  Rogers,  1554.     '  A  few  days  before  his  death 
he  wrote  the  following  advice  to  his  children  :  "  Abhor  the  arrant 
whore  of  Rome  and  all  her  blasphemies,  And  drink  not  of  her 
cursed  cup;  obey  not  her  decrees." ' 

21  Harriet   Martineau,   'Society  in  America,'  1837,  4th  edition, 
2,  322 :  '  Parents  put  into  their  children's  hands,  as  religious  books, 
the  foul  libels  against  the  Catholics,  which  are  circulated  through 
out  the  country.     In  the  west,  I  happened  to  find  a  book  of  this 
kind,  which  no  epithet  but  filthy  will  describe.'     Compare  Maria 
Monk,  'Awful  Disclosures,'  1836. 

22  Francis  Parkman,  'Jesuits  in  North  America,'  1896,  p.  122. 

23  J.  G.  Shea,  « History  of  the  Catholic   Church   in  the  United 
States,'  1890,  p.  498. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   i£i 

opposition  took  an  organized  form,  and  the  Protest 
ant  Association,  with  its  organ  The  Protestant  gath 
ered  old  calumnies  and  framed  new  ones.  To  trace 
the  growth  of  this  early  form  of  the  A.  P.  A.,  is 
going  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
All  that  should  be  noted  is  that  the  author  shared  in 
the  popular  narrowness  and  misapprehension. 

To  proceed  to  another  sign  of  the  times,  which 
left  a  water  mark  in  the  Mormon  documents.  The 
agitation  against  Papistry  was  matched  by  the  agi 
tation  against  Infidelity.  For  the  sake  of  continuity 
a  specific  line  of  resistance  may  be  followed  as  far 
back  as  1735.  In  the  first  heresy  trial  in  the  Presby 
terian  church  in  America,  one  of  Benjamin  Frank 
lin's  friends  24  was  condemned  for  preaching  that 
Christianity  was  largely  a  revival  or  new  edition  of 
the  laws  and  precepts  of  nature."  But  the  deistic 
drift  could  not  be  stopped.  Especially  after  the 
Revolution,  was  the  critical  period  in  politics,  en 
joined  with  a  critical  period  in  orthodoxy.  Then 
came  the  strictures  of  the  General  Assembly  of  1798, 
which  fulminated  against  the  '  abounding  infidelity, 
which,  in  many  instances,  tends  to  atheism  itself 
.  .  .  which  assumes  a  front  of  daring  impiety 
and  possesses  a  mouth  filled  with  blasphemy.'" 

24  Compare,  '  A  Letter  to  a  Friend  in  the  Country/  1735. 

25  Briggs,  p.  231. 
26Gillet,  I,  296;  2,  no. 


THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

The  New  England  clergy  also  warned  against  the 
danger  of  infidel  philosophy,27  and,  in  1810,  a  mis 
sionary  of  the  Connecticut  Society,  who  had  pene 
trated  into  the  neighborhood  of  Lake  Erie,  reported 
that  infidelity  abounded  to  an  alarming  degree  and 
in  various  shapes  in  the  district,  west  of  the  Military 
Tract.28 

The  rate  of  movement  in  philosophic  thought 
is  one  thing,  how  it  affected  the  masses  another. 
The  tastes  of  the  people  being  given  so  largely  to 
affairs  of  state  and  matters  of  theology,  greater  po 
litical  freedom  was  followed  by  greater  religious 
freedom.  Indeed,  to  many  eyes,  after  the  second 
war  with  England,39  the  land  of  liberty  threatened 
to  become  a  land  of  license.30  The  political  relations 
with  France  had  already  prepared  the  way  for 
French  infidelity.31  On  the  Ohio  there  arose  free- 
thinking  societies,  affiliated  with  the  Jacobin  club 


3T  Compare  Barrett  Wendell, « A  Literary  History  of  America/ 
New  York,  1900,  p.  127. 

28  Gillett,  2,  1 10. 

29  J.  F.  Jameson, «  The  History  of  Historical  Writing  in  America, 
1891. 

30 Compare  Dr.  Charles  Caldwell,  'A  Defense  of  the  Medical 
Profession  Against  the  Charge  of  In6delity  and  Irreligion,'  1824; 
also  Timothy  Dwight,  « The  Nature  and  Danger  of  French  Infi 
delity,'  1798,  and  '  Infidel  Philosophy,'  1798. 

31  Noah  Porter, « Deism  in  America,'  in  Ueberweg's  '  History  of 
Philosophy,1  1892,  2,  451. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   153 

of  Philadelphia;32  on  the  Genesee33  there  was  an  infi 
del  club,  with  a  circulating  library  comprising  the 
works  of  Volney  and  Hume,  Voltaire  and  Paine. 

It  is  with  the  last  writer  that  the  concern  lies.  The 
others  were  discussed  in  educated  circles;  'Tom' 
Paine's  sayings  were  bandied  about  by  the  ig 
norant.34  His  Age  of  Reason  being  sold  cheap  or 
sometimes  given  away,  Joseph  may  have  laid  hands 
on  a  copy,35  but,  as  heretofore,  other  than  literary 
sources  were  open  to  him.  The  people's  lyceum 
was  now  in  its  golden  age,  and  the  boy  who  was 
noted  among  his  companions  for  his  seriousness,38 
would  have  taken  naturally  to  the  portentous 
gravity  of  the  local  Thespian  society  or  debating 
junto.37  Even  without  membership  in  the  latter,  the 
topics  of  the  day  reached  the  lad's  ears;  he  now 
made  visits  to  town  to  get  the  weekly  paper,38  and 
to  sit  chatting  in  the  rustic  row.  There,  in  the 

32  Gillett,  i,  420. 

33  At  Scottsville,  near  Caledonia.     Hotchkin,  p.  90. 

34  W.  H.  Venable,  '  Beginnings  of  Literary  Culture  in  the  Ohio 
Valley,'  1891,  pp.  235,  238. 

35  G.  Q.  Cannon,  « Life  of  Joseph  Smith,'  1888,  p.  335  : — '  Joseph 
in  later  life  believed  what  he  asserted  against  the  opinions  of  a  scep 
tical  and  materialistic  age,  when  Voltaire  and  Tom  Paine  were 
the  authorities.' 

36  Newel  Knight,  « Journal,'  p.  47. 

37  A  Hall  of  the  Young  Men's  Association  existed  at  Palmyra  in 
1830. — Kennedy,  p.  14. 

3* '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  98. 


154    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

country  store,  the  subjects  of  discussion  were  as 
varied  as  the  wares,  and  in  the  tavern,  religion,  like 
politics,  was  the  delight  of  those  that  talked  for 
talk's  sake.  As  the  boy,  through  inclination  and 
through  poverty,39  was  less  of  a  reader  than  a  talker, 
it  is  not  meant  to  connect  him,  except  remotely,  to 
the  culture  of  the  day.  In  truth,  as  regards  polite 
learning,  he  was  on  the  margin  of  cultivation;  the 
recent  awakening  of  American  letters  had  no  in 
fluence  on  him;  he  was  farther  in  spirit  than  in 
space  from  such  contemporaries  as  Brockden  Brown, 
Fenimore  Cooper  and  Washington  Irving.  For  all 
that,  he  had  his  intellectual  interests;  local  creeds 
were  his  aids  to  reflection,  and  freethinkers  his 
stimulus  to  controversy.  Before  discovering  how, 
in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  he  incorporated,  only  to  re 
fute,  the  current  deistic  arguments,  the  narrow  spirit 
of  the  times  should  be  noted. 

The  hard  lot  of  the  thinker  who  would  be  free 
was  recorded  by  the  novelist  and  observed  by  the 
traveler.  One  of  Cooper's  heroines  is  applauded 
for  being  '  properly  impressed  with  the  horrors  of  a 
deist's  doctrine,'  while  another  'shrunk  from  his 
company.' 40  A  foreign  traveler  observed  that  unbe 
lief  was  treated  as  a  crime.41  This  social  ostracism 

39 'Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  771. 

40  T.  R.  Lounsbury,  «  Life  of  Fenimore  Cooper,'  p.  26. 

41  Harriet  Martineau,  p.  335,  '  I  was  told  of  one  and  another, 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   155 

came  near  leading  to  political  disability.  Some 
wished  to  see  regulations  made  by  which  deists 
should  be  excluded  from  office.  But  the  Jefferson 
administration,  although  suspected  of  infidelity," 
allowed  no  tampering  with  the  rights  of  conscience.48 
But  the  good  sense  and  moderation  that  forestalled 
any  approach  to  a  reunion  of  church  and  state,  was 
not  to  be  found  in  the  sectary.  The  author  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  represents  America  as  indeed  a 
land  of  free  speech,  yet  the  advocate  of  a  prehistoric 
deism  is  called  Anti-Christ.  He  quotes  opaquely 
from  the  Age  of  Reason  and  for  his  hardness  of  heart 
is  punished  both  by  the  High  Priest  and  the  Chief 
Judge:— 

'  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  seventeenth  year  of  the 
reign  of  the  Judges,  there  was  continual  peace.  But  it 
came  to  pass  in  the  latter  end  of  the  seventeenth  year, 
there  came  a  man  into  the  land  of  Zarahemla ;  and  he 
was  called  Anti-Christ,  for  he  began  to  preach  unto  the 
people  against  the  prophecies  which  had  been  spoken  by 

with  an  air  of  mystery,  like  that  with  which  one  is  informed  of 
any  person  being  insane,  or  intemperate  or  insolvent,  that  so  and 
so  was  thought  to  be  an  unbeliever.' 

42 «  Of  this  dangerous,  deistical  and  Utopian  school,  a  great  per 
sonage  from  Virginia  is  a  favored  pupil.  .  .  .  His  principles 
relish  so  strongly  of  Paris,  and  are  seasoned  in  such  a  profusion  of 
French  Garlic,  that  he  offends  the  whole  nation.'  Joseph  Dennie 
in  the  Portfolio,  Number  I,  1805,  quoted  in  Stedman  and  Hutch- 
inson,  'A  Library  of  American  Literature,'  1890,  4,  250. 

«  James  Schouler, « History  of  the  United  States,'  1882,  p.  251. 


156    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

the  prophets,  concerning  the  coming  of  Christ.  Now 
there  was  no  law  against  a  man's  belief.  .  .  .  And 
this  Anti-Christ,  whose  name  was  Korihor,  and  the  law 
could  have  no  hold  upon  him.  And  he  began  to  preach 
unto  the  people,  that  there  should  be  no  Christ.  And 
after  this  manner  did  he  preach,  saying :  O  ye  that  are 
bound  down  under  a  foolish  and  vain  hope,  why  do  ye 
yoke  yourselves  with  such  foolish  things  ?  Why  do  ye 
look  for  a  Christ?  For  no  man  can  know  of  anything 
which  is  to  come.  Behold,  these  things  which  ye  call 
prophecies,  which  ye  say  are  handed  down  by  the  holy 
prophets,  behold,  they  are  foolish  traditions  of  your 
fathers.  How  do  ye  know  of  their  surety?  Behold,  ye 
cannot  know  of  things  which  ye  do  not  see ;  therefore  ye 
cannot  know  that  there  shall  be  a  Christ.  Ye  look  for 
ward  and  say,  that  ye  see  a  remission  of  your  sins.  But 
behold,  it  is  the  effects  of  a  phrensied  mind :  and  this 
derangement  of  your  minds  comes  because  of  the  tradi 
tion  of  your  fathers,  which  lead  you  away  into  a  belief  of 
things  which  are  not  so.  And  many  more  such  things 
did  he  say  unto  them,  telling  them  that  there  could  be  no 
atonement  made  for  the  sins  of  men,  but  every  man  fared 
in  this  life,  according  to  the  management  of  the  creature ; 
therefore  every  man  prospered  according  to  his  genius, 
and  that  every  man  conquered  according  to  his  strength ; 
and  whatsoever  a  man  did,  was  no  crime.  And  thus  he 
did  preach  unto  them,  leading  away  the  hearts  of  many, 
causing  them  to  lift  up  their  heads  in  their  wickedness ; 
yea,  leading  away  many  women,  and  also  men,  to  com 
mit  whoredoms ;  telling  them  that  when  a  man  was  dead, 
that  was  the  end  thereof.  .  .  . 

And  it  came   to   pass   that   the    High    Priest    said 
unto  him,  Why  do  ye  go  about  perverting  the  ways  of 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY       157 

the  Lord  ?  Why  do  ye  teach  this  people  that  there  shall 
be  no  Christ,  to  interrupt  their  rejoicings  ?  Why  do  ye 
speak  against  all  the  prophecies  of  the  holy  prophets? 
Now  the  High  Priest's  name  was  Giddonah.  And  Kori- 
hor  said  unto  him  because  I  do  not  teach  the  foolish  tra 
ditions  of  your  fathers,  and  because  I  do  not  teach  this 
people  to  bind  themselves  down  under  the  foolish  ordi 
nances  and  performances  which  are  laid  down  by  ancient 
priests,  to  usurp  power  and  authority  over  them,  to  keep 
them  in  ignorance,  that  they  may  not  lift  up  their  heads, 
but  be  brought  down  according  to  thy  words.  Ye  say 
that  this  people  is  a  free  people.  Behold,  I  say  they  are 
in  bondage.  Ye  say  that  those  ancient  prophecies  are 
true.  Behold,  I  say  that  ye  do  not  know  that  they  are 
true.  Ye  say  that  this  people  is  a  guilty  and  a  fallen 
people,  because  of  the  transgression  of  a  parent.  Be 
hold,  I  say  that  a  child  is  not  guilty  because  of  its 
parents.  And  ye  also  say  that  Christ  shall  come.  But 
behold,  I  say  that  ye  do  not  know  that  there  shall  be  a 
Christ.  And  ye  say  also,  that  He  shall  be  slain  for  the 
sins  of  the  world ;  and  thus  ye  lead  away  this  people 
after  the  foolish  traditions  of  your  fathers,  and  according 
to  your  own  desires ;  and  ye  keep  them  down,  even  as  it 
were,  in  bondage,  that  ye  may  glut  yourselves  with  the 
labors  of  their  hands,  that  they  durst  not  look  up  with 
boldness,  and  that  they  durst  not  enjoy  their  rights  and 
privileges ;  yea,  they  durst  not  make  use  of  that  which  is 
their  own,  lest  they  should  offend  their  priests,  who  do 
yoke  them  according  to  their  desires,  and  have  brought 
them  to  believe  by  their  traditions,  and  their  dreams, 
and  their  whims,  and  their  visions,  and  their  pre 
tended  mysteries,  that  they  should,  if  they  did 
not  do  according  to  their  words,  offend  some  unknown 


158    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

being,  which  they  say  is  God ;  a  being  who  never  has 
been  seen  or  known,  who  never  was  nor  ever  will  be. 
Now  when  the  High  Priest  and  the  Chief  Judge  saw  the 
hardness  of  his  heart ;  yea,  when  they  saw  that  he  would 
revile  even  against  God,  they  would  not  make  any  reply 
to  his  words ;  but  they  caused  that  he  should  be  bound ; 
and  they  delivered  him  up  into  the  hands  of  the  officers, 
and  sent  him  to  the  land  of  Zarahemla,  that  he  might  be 
brought  before  Alma  and  the  Chief  Judge,  who  was 
governor  over  all  the  land. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  when  he  was  brought  be 
fore  Alma  and  the  Chief  Judge,  he  did  go  on  in  the 
same  manner  as  he  did  in  the  land  of  Gideon ;  yea,  he 
went  on  to  blaspheme.  And  he  did  rise  up  in  great 
swelling  words  before  Alma,  and  did  revile  against  the 
priests  and  teachers,  accusing  them  of  leading  away  the 
people  after  the  silly  traditions  of  their  fathers,  for  the 
sake  of  glutting  in  the  labors  of  the  people.'  u 

44  Compare,  in  order,  with  the  above  passage  the  following  ex 
tracts  from  « The  Writings  of  Thomas  Paine,'  edited  by  Moncure 
D.  Con  way,  1896, 

« Book  of  Mormon.'  « Alma/  '  Age  of  Reason,'  Part  I,  edi- 
Chapter  xvi,  pp.  321-324.  'Ye  tion  of  1793.  '  As  Mystery  and 
cannot  know  of  things  which  ye  Miracle  took  charge  of  the  past 
do  not  see.  and  the  present,  Prophecy  took 

charge  of  the  future.  Those  to 
whom  a  prophecy  should  be  told, 
could  not  tell  whether  the  man 

Ye  say  that  ye  see  a  remis-  prophesied  or  lied,  or  whether 
sion  of  your  sins.  But  this  de-  it  had  been  revealed  to  him,  or 
rangement  of  your  minds  comes  whether  he  conceited  it.  Moral 
because  of  the  traditions  of  your  justice  cannot  take  the  innocent 
fathers.  .  .  .  There  could  be  no  for  the  guilty,  ...  the  fabulous 
atonement  made  for  the  sins  of  theory  of  redemption,  that  one 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   159 


The   spirit  of  intolerance  diffused  through  the 

men,  but  every  man  fared  in 
this  life  according  to  the  man 
agement  of  the  creature.  When 
a  man  was  dead,  that  was  the 
end  thereof. 


person  could  stand  in  the  place 
of  another,  and  could  perform 
meritorious  services  for  him. 


I  trouble  not  myself  about  the 
manner  of  future  existence.  That 
God  visits  the  sins  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children.  .  .  .  This  is 
contrary  to  every  principle  of 
moral  justice. 

The  means  employed  in  all 
time  to  deceive  the  people.  .  .  . 
The  church  has  set  up  a  religion 
of  pomp  and  revenue.  The 
trade  of  priest  is  for  the  sake  of 
gain.  From  the  first  preachers 
the  fraud  went  on,  .  .  .  till  the 
idea  of  its  being  a  pious  fraud 
became  lost  in  the  belief  of  its 
being  true.  Wild  and  whim 
sical  systems  of  belief  have 
been  fabricated.  The  three 
means  to  impose  upon  man 
kind  are  Mystery,  Miracle  and 
Prophecy.' 

Closer  examination  of  this  passage  from  Alma  betrays  the  usual 
haphazard  borrowing.  Alma's  counter-argument  of  the  « planets 
which  move  in  their  regular  form,'  was  taken  from  the  enemy  ;  it 
was,  in  fact  one  of  the  chief  deistic  arguments  for  belief  in  a  First 
Cause.  (Compare  '  Age  of  Reason,'  Part  I,  Chapters  9, 1 1  and  espec 
ially  13,  <  The  Religious  Ideas  inspired  by  Nature,'  and  also  in 
Paine's  citation  of  Addison's  Paraphrase  of  the  iQth  Psalm,  the 
lines  « and  all  the  planets  as  they  roll,'  and  « the  hand  that  made  us 
is  divine.')  If  Joseph  here  showed  a  lack  of  logic,  the  fault  was 
not  individual  but  collective.  People  confused  deism  with  athe 
ism;  Paine  was  justly  called  'Citizen  Egotism,'  but  he  was  no 
atheist 


A  child  is  not  guilty  because 
of  its  parents. 


Under  the  foolish  ordinances 
and  performances  which  are  laid 
down  by  ancient  priests  ...  ye 
lead  away  this  people  after  the 
foolish  traditions  of  your  fathers, 
.  .  .  that  ye  may  glut  yourselves 
with  the  labors  of  their  hands, 
— lest  they  should  offend  their 
priests,  who  have  brought  them 
to  believe  by  their  traditions, 
and  their  dreams,  and  their 
whims,  and  their  visions,  and 
their  pretended  mysteries.' 


160    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Book  of  Mormon  has  meaning;  it  places  the  docu 
ment  well  within  the  first  third  of  the  century,  the 
'fermenting  period'  of  American  thought.  And 
there  is  a  third  and  final  popular  movement  herein 
reflected,  which  fixes,  not  only  the  time,  but  the 
place  of  the  record.  The  frequent  allusions  to 
'wicked  and  secret  societies,  wicked  and  secret 
combinations,'45  point  to  the  agitation  against  Free 
Masonry  in  New  York  State,  beginning  in  1826. 
The  abduction  and  alleged  murder  of  William  Mor 
gan  by  some  of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  although 
without  the  consent  of  the  central  authority,  caused 
an  unparalleled  excitement.  This  mechanic  of  Ba- 
tavia,  reported  to  be  preparing  a  book  divulging  the 
secrets  of  the  order,  was  seized,  haled  off  to  Fort 
Niagara  and  suddenly  made  away  with.46  It  was  be 
lieved  that  judges,  juries  and  witnesses,  if  Masons, 
would  exonerate  the  culprits;  at  any  rate,  the  outrage 
resulted  in  the  abolishing  of  local  lodges,47  and  in  the 
rise  of  the  Anti-Masonic  party.  It  is  not  because  of 
its  political,48  but  its  religious  effects  that  traces  of 
this  agitation  are  to  be  found  in  the  Mormon  Bible; 
the  testimonies  of  Masons  were  considered  to  be 

45 «  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  589,  595,  596. 

46  Jenkins,  '  History  of  the  Political  Parties  in  the  State  of  New 
York,'  Auburn,  1846,  pp.  327-332. 

«  Butler  and  Crittenden, « Rochester  Semi-Centennial,'  1884,  p.  63. 

48  McClintock  and  Strong,  « Encylopedia,'  article  Mormonism, 
6,  624  ff. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   161 

Jesuitical  evasions,  and,  above  all,  the  so  called  de- 
istical  tendencies  of  their  formula  were  alleged  to 
be  destructive  of  Christianity.49  Inasmuch  as  this 
affair  took  place  in  the  year  in  which  Joseph  came 
of  age,  as  the  victim  was  arrested  at  Canandaigua, 
only  nine  miles  away,  and  as  rumor,  even  in  the 
wilderness,  was  swift,50  without  the  aid  of  the  cur 
rent  pamphlets  of  exposure,61  the  Morgan  excite 
ment  got  into  the  young  prophet's  brain  and  was 
bound  to  come  out  in  his  writings.68  The  passage 
from  the  'abridgement  taken  from  the  Book  of 
Ether,'  may  be  offered  as  a  final  bit  of  internal  evi 
dence,  as  to  the  time,  place  and  circumstances  at 
the  coming  forth  of  the  Booh  of  Mormon :  — 

'  But  behold,  satan  did  stir  up  the  hearts  of  the  more 
part  of  the  Nephites,  insomuch  that  they  did  unite  with 
those  bands  of  robbers,  and  did  enter  into  their  cove 
nants,  and  their  oaths,  that  they  would  protect  and  pre 
serve  one  another,  in  whatsoever  difficult  circumstances 
they  should  be  placed  in,  that  they  should  not  suffer  for 
their  murders,  and  their  plunderings,  and  their  stealings. 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  they  did  have  their  signs, 


49  Isaac  Sharpless,  «  Two  Centuries  of  Pennsylvania  History,' 
1900,  pp.  291-2. 

50  De  Tocqueville,  p.  406,  <  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  the  incred 
ible  rapidity  with  which  thought  circulates  in  the  midst  of  these 
deserts.' 

61  Jenkins,  p.  355. 

62  Compare  also  '  Book  of  Commandments,'  p.  55. 


1 62    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

yea,  their  secret  signs,  and  their  secret  words;  and 
this  that  they  might  distinguish  a  brother  who  had  en 
tered  into  the  covenant,  that  whatsoever  wickedness  his 
brother  should  do,  he  should  not  be  injured  by  his 
brother,  nor  by  those  who  did  belong  to  his  band,  who 
had  taken  this  covenant ;  and  thus  they  might  murder, 
and  plunder,  and  steal,  and  commit  whoredoms,  and  all 
manner  of  wickedness,  contrary  to  the  laws  of  their 
country  and  also  the  laws  of  their  God ;  and  whosoever 
of  those  who  belonged  to  their  band,  should  reveal  unto 
the  world  of  their  wickedness  and  their  abominations, 
should  be  tried,  not  according  to  the  laws  of  their  coun 
try,  but  according  to  the  laws  of  their  wickedness, 
which  had  been  given  by  Gadianton  and  Kishkumen. 
Now  behold,  it  is  these  secret  oaths  and  covenants,  which 
Alma  commanded  his  son  should  not  go  forth  unto  the 
world,  lest  they  should  be  a  means  of  bringing  down  the 
people  unto  destruction.  .  .  . 

And  now  I,  Moroni,  do  not  write  the  manner  of 
their  oaths  and  combinations,  for  it  hath  been  made 
known  unto  me  that  they  are  had  among  all  people,  and 
they  are  had  among  the  Lamanites,  and  they  have  caused 
the  destruction  of  this  people  of  whom  I  am  now  speak 
ing,  and  also  the  destruction  of  the  people  of  Nephi; 
and  whatsoever  nation  shall  uphold  such  secret  combinat 
ions,  to  get  power  and  gain,  until  they  shall  spread  over 
the  nation,  behold,  they  shall  be  destroyed,  for  the  Lord 
will  not  suffer  that  the  blood  of  His  saints,  which  shall  be 
shed  by  them,  shall  always  cry  unto  Him  from  the  ground 
for  vengeance  upon  them,  and  yet  He  avengeth  them  not ; 
wherefore,  O  ye  Gentiles,  it  is  wisdom  in  God  that  these 
things  should  be  shewn  unto  you,  that  thereby  ye  may 
repent  of  your  sins,  and  suffer  not  that  these  murderous 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   163 

combinations  shall  get  above  you,  which  are  built  up  to 
get  power  and  gain,  and  the  work,  yea,  even  the  work  of 
destruction  come  upon  you ;  yea,  even  the  sword  of  the 
justice  of  the  eternal  God,  shall  fall  upon  you,  to  your 
overthrow  and  destruction,  if  ye  shall  suffer  these  things 
to  be;  wherefore  the  Lord  commandeth  you,  when  ye 
shall  see  these  things  come  among  you,  that  ye  shall 
awake  to  a  sense  of  your  awful  situation,  because  of  this 
secret  combination  which  shall  be  among  you,  or  wo  be 
unto  it,  because  of  the  blood  of  them  who  have  been 
slain ;  for  they  cry  from  the  dust  for  vengeance  upon  it, 
and  also  upon  those  who  build  it  up.'  M 

Without  further  quotation  or  digression,  it  re 
mains  to  get  at  a  psychological  estimate  of  the  Book 
of  Mormon.  As  literature  it  is  not  worth  reading, 
— the  educated  Mormons  fight  shy  of  it; "  as  history 
it  merely  casts  a  side  light  on  a  frontier  settlement 
in  the  twenties;  but  as  biography  it  has  value,  it 
gives,  as  it  were,  a  cross  section  of  the  author's 
brain.  The  subject  may  be  most  inclusively  studied 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  constructive  imagina 
tion,  its  materials  and  range,  its  phases  aesthetic 
and  intellective,  its  aspects  emotional  and  possibly 
moral."  So  first,  as  in  the  case  of  the  progenitors 
and  their  dreams,  the  objects  and  scenes  and  inci- 

53 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  446,  588,  589. 
54  Woodward,  p.  4. 

«  Compare  James  Sully, « The  Human  Mind,'  1892,  Chapter  v, 
'The  Productive  Imagination.' 


164    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

dents  of  experience  furnished  the  stuff  for  the 
growth  of  Joseph's  mental  inwards.  In  sticking  to 
the  plenary  inspiration  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  the 
Saints  make  Smith  greater  than  a  genius,  for  whom 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  perfectly  new  creation, 
or  freedom  from  the  bounds  and  checks  of  his  situ 
ation.  But  to  go  on:  like  the  events  already  cited, 
this  entire  'Sacred  History  of  America'  is  woven 
out  of  those  ideas  which  interested  the  people  of 
Western  New  York  about  1830.  Despite  such  lim 
itation,  the  range  of  Joseph's  fancy  was  extensive; 
his  imagination  was  not  trammeled  by  his  under 
standing;  his  information  came  orally,  and  there 
were  few  books  to  check  him:  hence  his  anachron 
isms.  From  the  same  lack  of  knowledge,  his  pre- 
cognitions  of  the  future  are  naught.  Joseph's 
prophecies  are  pseudographs, —events  that  had 
happened  put  as  if  they  were  yet  to  happen.56 
And  the  aesthetic  was  as  lacking  as  the  prophetic. 
The  '  poems  of  Joseph '  are  not  half  bad,  but  they 
are  not  his;  while  the  picture  of  his  favorite  Lam- 
anites  is  not  poetic  but  prosaic;  Cooper  idealized  the 
Indian,  Smith  made  him  repulsive. 

Of  the  intellective  phase  of  his  imagination,  some 
thing  more  favorable  can  be  said,  yet  with  strength 

56  Contrast  Thompson,  p.  229,  '  The  "  Book  of  Mormon  "  is  a 
true  and  divinely  inspired  record,  therefore  the  prophecies  and 
promises  contained  in  it  will  all  be  fulfilled.' 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY        165 

there  was  weakness.  The  Book  of  Mormon,  as  a 
storehouse  of  sectarianism,  implies  a  retentive  mem 
ory  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  lack  of  discriminative 
judgment.  Granted  that  the  style  was  inflated,  be 
cause  that  was  the  style  of  the  day,"  and  that  the 
thoughts  were  diffuse,  because  dictated,  yet  the 
feebleness  of  the  critical  faculty  is  shown  in  various 
ways.  In  the  midst  of  the  ancient  story,  modern 
inventions  are  grotesquely  inserted;  the  language  is 
biblical,  but  the  ideas  are  local.  The  lost  tribes  of 
the  Jews  emigrate  to  America  in  vessels  which  are 
a  cross  between  Noah's  ark  and  an  Erie  canal  boat. 
This  occasional  mixture  of  sense  and  nonsense  may 
be  matched  among  his  co-religionists,  for  other 
readers  took  the  Scriptures  literally  and  interpreted 
fancifully;58  nevertheless  Joseph's  imagination  ap 
pears  to  have  been  seldom  controlled  by  the  judicial 
spirit.  In  the  recension  of  the  first  edition  he 
evinced  no  capacity  to  select  and  reject;  to  this  day 
there  remain  strange  puerilities.  After  the  natural 


57  De  Tocqueville,  2,  184,  gives  a  characteristic  explanation 
'  Why  American  Writers  and  Orators  often  use  an  Inflated  Style  ':  — 
1  In  democratic  communities,  each  citizen  is  habitually  engaged  in 
the  contemplation  of  a  very  puny  object,  namely  himself.  If  he 
ever  raises  his  looks  higher,  he  perceives  only  the  immense  form 
of  society  at  large,  or  the  more  imposing  aspect  of  mankind.' 

58 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  p  53,  Orson  Pratt,  in  footnote,  interprets 
(Isaiah,  49),  'my  highways  shall  be  exalted,'  as  railways  exalted 
in  the  Rocky  Mountains. 


166    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

outburst  against  free  masonry,  there  occurs  the  fol 
lowing  curiosity  of  literature:  — 

'  And  now  I,  Moroni,  proceed  with  my  record.  There 
fore  behold,  it  came  to  pass  that  because  of  the  secret 
combinations  of  Akish  and  his  friends,  behold  they  did 
overthrow  the  Kingdom  of  Omer.  And  the  Lord  warned 
Omer  in  a  dream  that  he  should  depart  out  of  the  land, 
wherefore  Omer  passed  by  the  hill  of  Shim,  and  came  to 
a  place  which  was  called  Ablom ;  and  after  that  he  had 
anointed  Emer  to  be  king  the  house  of  Emer  did  pros 
per  exceedingly  and  they  had  horses,  and  asses,  and 
there  were  elephants  and  cureloms  and  cumoms ;  all  of 
which  were  useful  unto  man,  and  more  especially  the  ele 
phants  and  cureloms  and  cumoms.69 

Joseph  must  have  been  thinking  of  these  his  pre 
historic  Jabberwoks,  when  he  told  his  followers  to 

59 '  Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  588-590.  Another  puzzle  in  etymology 
is  to  be  found  on  p.  571 : — '  Ether  was  a  descendant  of  Coriantor; 
Coriantor  was  the  son  of  Moron ;  and  Moron  was  the  son  of  Ethem ; 
and  Ethem  was  the  son  of  Ahah ;  and  Ahah  was  the  son  of  Seth  ;  and 
Seth  was  the  son  of  Shiblon ;  and  Shiblon  was  the  son  of  Com ; 
and  Com  was  the  son  of  Coriantum ;  and  Coriantum  was  the  son 
of  Amnigaddah ;  and  Amnigaddah  was  the  son  of  Aaron ;  and 
Aaron  was  a  descendant  of  Heth,  who  was  the  son  of  Hearthom ; 
and  Hearthom  was  the  son  of  Lib ;  and  Lib  was  the  son  of  Kish ; 
and  Kish  was  the  son  of  Corum ;  and  Corum  was  the  son  of  Levi ; 
and  Levi  was  the  son  of  Kim ;  and  Kim  was  the  son  of  Morian- 
ton ;  and  Morianton  was  a  descendant  of  Riplakish ;  and  Riplakish 
was  a  son  of  Shez;  and  Shez  was  the  son  of  Heth;  and  Heth  was 
the  son  of  Com ;  and  Com  was  the  son  of  Coriantum ;  and  Corian 
tum  was  the  son  of  Emer ;  and  Emer  was  the  son  of  Omer ;  and 
Omer  was  the  son  of  Shule  ;  and  Shule  was  the  son  of  Kib ;  and 
Kib  was  the  son  of  Orihah,  who  was  the  son  of  Jared. ' 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY        167 

beware  of  'a  fanciful,  flowery  and  heated  imagina 
tion.  "°  But  seriously,  whatever  the  sources  of  these 
humors  and  conceits,  they  are  characteristic  of  the 
whole  tribe  of  Smith.  Joseph's  hypertrophy  of 
imagination  was  inherited:  his  aunt  composed  a 
vivid  poem  on  death  and  the  grave;61  his  mother 
could  almost  see  the  flutter  of  demons'  wings;  his 
father  had  a  panorama  of  visions;  his  grandfather 
Mack  complained  of  his  mind  being  'imagining  but 
agitated.'  Environment  likewise  had  an  influence. 
Brought  up  in  the  area  swept  by  revivals — the '  burnt- 
over  district'  as  it  was  called — his  imagination  was 
fired  by  his  feelings.  Thereby  he  escaped  the  cold 
logic  of  the  schools;  he  also  went  beyond  the  limits 
of  probability.  All  this  had  an  effect  on  his  charac 
ter.  Ignorant  of  the  subconscious  force  of  un 
checked  reverie,  he  considered  his  every  whimsy  to 
be  inspired.  How  far  his  imagination  fostered  his 
credulity,  how  far  he  became  conscious  that  his 
'translating'  was  mainly  automatic,  whether  as  a 
dramatically  imagined  'seer  and  revelator,'  he  was 
deceived  or  deceiving, — these  are  questions  for  the 
moralist  to  decide,  after  the  results  are  in.  The 
problem,  now,  is  one  of  letters  rather  than  of  ethics, 
—to  see  how  the  characteristics  of  the  book  fit  the 
character  of  the  man. 

60 '  Times  and  Seasons,'  I,  102. 
bi '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  29. 


168     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

The  four  chief  marks  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  are 
a  redundant  style,  fragmentary  information,  a  fanci 
ful  archaeology,  and  an  unsystematic  theology. 
The  redundancy  of  style  fits  the  description  given 
by  a  lawyer,  who  defended  the  prophet  in  his 
Missouri  troubles  in  1839.  He  says,  '  In  conversa 
tion  he  was  slow,  and  used  too  many  words  to  ex 
press  his  ideas  and  would  not  generally  go  directly 
to  a  point.'62  It  was  this  verbosity  that  made 
Joseph  magnify  his  microscopic  facts  many  dia 
meters.  The  inherent  paucity  of  his  information 
accords  with  the  observation  of  Josiah  Quincy,  that 
the  prophet  '  talked  as  from  a  strong  mind  utterly 
unenlightened  by  the  teachings  of  history.'63  The 
same  thing  explains  Joseph's  lifelong  delight  in 
pseudo-archaeology,  from  his  own  fireside  tales  to 
the  citing  of  Central  American  discoveries  as  '  more 
proofs  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  as  a  historical  and 
religious  record,  written  in  ancient  times  by  a 
branch  of  the  house  of  Israel,  who  peopled  America 
and  from  whom  the  Indians  are  descended.' G4  Now 
these  very  flights  of  fancy  were  part  and  parcel  of 
Smith's  strange  being.  If  they  are  not  to  be  con 
nected  with  the  roving  habits  of  his  progenitors, 
they  were  at  least  nurtured  by  the  free  life  of  the 

62  P.  H.  Burnett,  'Recollections  of  a  Pioneer,'  1880,  p.  66 
63 «  Figures  of  the  Past,'  p.  399. 
64  '  Times  and  Seasons,'  I,  69. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY        169 

forest.  The  boy  who  withdrew  at  will  into  a  past 
world  of  his  own,  was  the  youth  who  scoured  the 
country  for  hidden  treasure,  and  the  young  man 
who  oscillated  across  the  width  of  the  state65  in 
search  of  the  elusive  gold  plates. 

Finally  his  bodily  movements  are  matched  by  his 
mental  restlessness, — the  fourth  mark  of  the  man.  In 
his  logic  he  skips  the  middle  term;  in  his  theology 
he  darts  from  creed  to  creed;  as  defender  of  the  faith 
against  Romanism  or  Infidelity,  he  is  impatient, 
intolerant.  In  fine,  it  may  be  said  that  Joseph 
Smith,  in  all  respects,  although  in  exaggerated 
form,  showed  himself  the  type  of  Western  pioneer. 
as  he  was  contrasted  with  the  Easterner.  Of  that 
type  a  foreign  traveler  observed,  '  their  business  is 
conducted  with  an  almost  feverish  excitement, 
.  .  .  their  passions  are  more  intense,  their  relig 
ious  morality  less  authoritative,  and  their  convic 
tions  less  firm.'66 

To  adjust  one's  ideas  of  the  mental  ability  of  the 
imaginative,  emotional,  young  American,  a  com 
parison  may  be  made  with  a  similar  case  in  English 
literature.  Going  back  to  the  reign  of  George  III 
the  origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  has  an  instruct 
ive  likeness  to  that  of  the  Rowley  myth.  Thomas 

65  For  Joseph's  movements  between  Lake  Erie  and  the  Susque- 
hanna,  see  Appendix  III,  Table  II. 

66  De  Tocqueville,  I,  413. 


i/o    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Chatterton,67  'the  marvelous  boy 'of  Bristol,  was 
born  in  1752.  He  was  the  son  of  a  drunken  school 
master  and  a  descendant  of  a  line  of  sextons  a  century 
and  a  half  long.  Brought  up  in  the  shadow  of  the 
Church  of  St.  Mary  Redcliffe,  a  dreamy,  secretive  lad, 
delighting  in  heraldry,  blackletter  manuscripts  and 
local  antiquities,  at  the  age  of  sixteen  he  brought  forth 
a  series  of  pseudo-antique  poems,  which,  at  first, 
deceived  the  very  elect.  Although  taught  but  little 
and  with  straitened  means,  there  rose  up  before  the 
eye  of  his  fancy  the  mediaeval  walls  and  towers  of 
his  native  town.  To  obtain  evidence  for  his  imag 
inings,  a  monkish  pseudonym  was  adopted.  The 
document,  which  he  sent  to  Horace  Walpole,  bore 
the  title,  '  The  Ryse  of  Peyncteynge  in  Englande, 
Wroten  by  T.  Rowleie,  1469,  for  Master  Canynge.'68 
Walpole  was  interested  but  not  taken  in;  the 
dubious  authorship  of  the  Ossianic  poems  was  still 
in  his  mind.  Meanwhile  the  critical  authorities 
showed  up  the  skilful  forgery,  but  others  were 
gullible;  the  Bristol  historian  accepted  Chatterton's 
fiction  for  fact,  and  there  sprung  up  a  group  of 
clerical  admirers  who  dabbled  in  the  antique.69  As 

67  Compare  Henry  S.  Beers,  « A  History  of  English  Romanticism 
in  the  Eighteenth  Century,'  1899,  Chapter  x;  also  David  Masson^ 
«  Chatterton,'  1901. 

68 T.  H.  Ward,  'The  English  Poets,'  1891,  3,  400. 

69  Compare  the  second  edition  of  the  Antiques,  1783,  by  Dean 
Milles  of  Exeter,  and  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries,  in  which  « the 
genuineness  of  their  antiquity  was  considered  and  defended.' 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   171 

to  the  literary  value  of  the  works  '  wroten  by  T. 
Rowleie '  and  of  the  '  account  written  by  the  hand 
of  Mormon,'  comparisons  are  odious;  yet  the  com 
ing  forth  of  both  arose  under  somewhat  like  condi 
tions.  In  the  days  of  each  young  pseudologist,  the 
literature  of  disguise  was  rife.  Chatterton  was 
preceded  by  Walpole's  pseudonymus  Castle  of 
Otranto,  by  the  Reliques  called  Percy's,  by  McPher- 
son's  Fingal,  and  other  poems  attributed  to  ancient 
Scottish  bards. 

And  such,  in  relative  measure  were  the  surround 
ings  of  the  translator  of  the  'Plates  of  Nephi.' 
What  happened  in  Britain  was  happening  here.  By 
his  Knickerbocker  History  of  New  York,  Wash 
ington  Irving  was  showing  to  Anglo-Americans  of 
culture  how  honey  could  be  brought  forth  out  of  the 
dead  lion.  The  Philistines  also  had  their  riddles. 
The  puritanic  who  eschewed  novels,  were  yet 
devouring  romances.  In  Massachusetts  a  parch 
ment  inscribed  with  Hebrew  characters,  being  dug 
up  on  an  'Indian  hill'  was  accepted  as  an  'Indian 
Bible,'70  although  scoffers  pronounced  it  the 
phylactery  of  some  wandering  Jew  of  a  peddlar. 
In  New  York  state  Priest's  American  Antiquities 
went  through  three  editions  in  one  year,71  while 
rumors  of  a  '  Canada  Gold  Bible '  flew  over  the 

'o  H.  II.  Bancroft, '  Works,'  5, 89 ;  compare  also  P.  P.  Pratt,  p.  1 16. 
71 '  Bibliotheca  Americana,'  15,  85. 


i/2     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

border."  Finally  in  Ohio  the  Reverend  Solomon 
Spaulding's  romance  of  ancient  America,  entitled  a 
'  Manuscript  Found,'  was  creating  some  stir. 

How  far  did  Joseph  Smith  fasten  on  this  literary 
driftwood,  as  it  floated  on  the  current  of  the  times  ? 
It  is  here  unnecessary  to  follow  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
the  tide  of  speculation.  In  spite  of  a  continuous 
stream  of  conjectural  literature,  it  is  as  yet  impossible 
to  pick  out  any  special  document  as  an  original 
source  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  In  particular,  the 
commonly  accepted  Spaulding  theory  is  insoluble 
from  external  evidence  and  disproved  by  internal 
evidence.73  Joseph  Smith's  '  Record  of  the  Indians '  is 
a  product  indigenous  to  the  New  York  '  Wilderness,' 
and  the  authentic  work  of  its  'author  and  proprietor.' 
Outwardly,  it  reflects  the  local  color  of  Palmyra  and 
Manchester,  inwardly,  its  complex  of  thought  is  a 
replica  of  Smith's  muddled  brain.  This  monument 
of  misplaced  energy  was  possible  to  the  impression 
able  youth  constituted  and  circumstanced  as  he  was. 
The  acts  of  Nephi  are  indeed  the  acts  of  Joseph : — 
'  and  upon  the  plates  which  I  made,  I  did  engraven 
the  record  of  my  father,  and  also  of  our  journeyings 
in  the  wilderness,  and  the  prophecies  of  my  father; 
and  also  many  of  my  own  prophecies  have  I  en 
graven  upon  them.' 

73  Schroeder,  p.  55. 
73  See  Appendix  III. 


THE  AUTHOR'S  MENTALITY   173 

It  is  now  in  order  to  trace  the  public  execution  of 
the  scheme, — from  the  first  inkling  of  the  plates  in 
1823  to  the  thrice-repeated  prophecy  of  1829,  that 
1  a  great  and  marvelous  work  is  about  to  come  forth 
among  the  children  of  men.' 


CHAPTER  VI 
PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR 


CHAPTER  VI 

PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR 

THE  name  of  author  and  proprietor  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon  was  inadvertently  assumed  and  quickly 
discarded.  The  title  of  prophet,  seer  and  revelator 
was  a  growth.1  Joseph's  first  prophecy,  at  the  age 
of  eighteen,  concerned  Deacon  Jessup  and  the 
widow's  cow;*  his  last  revelation,  called  the 
Appendix,  concerned  the  second  advent.3  In  their 
variety  Smith's  prophetic  utterances  comprised 
items  on  the  Ancient  of  days,  Boarding-houses, 
Celestial  glory,  the  Day  of  vengeance,  Emma  Smith, 
Far  West  City,—  and  so  on  through  the  alphabet. 
As  head  of  the  church,  Smith  once  said,  '  We  never 
enquire  at  the  hand  of  God  for  special  revelation 
only  in  case  of  there  being  no  previous  revelation 
to  suit  the  case.'  4  The  acceptance  of  these  allocu 
tions  among  his  followers  passes  all  understanding, 


of  Commandments,'  Chapter  xxii,  April  6th,  1830.  — 
•  Thou  shall  be  called  a  seer,  a  translator,  a  prophet,  an  apostle,  an 
elder. 

«  «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  91. 
•'  Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  §  133. 
*«  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  753. 

177 


178     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

unless  their  notions  and  crotchets  are  taken  into 
account.  Among  them  there  was  an  underlying 
belief  in  the  predictive  and  oracular.  Thus  Daniel 
Tyler  said  that  his  grandfather  prophesied  that  his 
father  would  live  to  see  the  true  church  organized; 
and  he  himself  joined  the  Latter-day  Saints,  because 
it  was  predicted  that  he  should  become  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel.5  Wilford  Woodruff  revolts  at  the 
assertions  of  his  Presbyterian  friends  that  there  are 
to  be  no  more  prophecies  and  revelations.  In  his 
perturbation  he  walks  by  the  sea  and  receives  '  the 
sign  of  the  prophet  Jonah:  a  large  fish  rises  near  the 
shore  and  looks  at  him  with  penetrating  eye.' 6  He 
allies  himself  to  Joseph  the  wonder-worker  because 
of  what  old  prophet  Mason  had  predicted,  years 
before,  about  the  restoration  of  primitive  gifts. 

Joseph  succeeded  in  his  vaticinations  because  the 
/ground  was  prepared;  his  was  a  prophetic  neighbor 
hood.  Jemima  Wilkinson,  the  Sibyl  of  Crooked 
Lake,  was  not  disturbed  in  her  mouthings,  since 
she  advertised  the  region  opened  up  by  Phelps  and 
Gorham.7  The  Shakers,  in  Wayne  County,  were 
uttering  millennial  warnings.8  More  rabid  Miller- 
arians  infested  the  parts  around  Rochester,  although 

•«  Leaves  from  my  Journal,'  pp.  I,  44. 
• «  Scraps  of  Biography,'  pp.  21,  22. 
i  J.  M.  Parke, « Rochester,'  1884. 

s '  Millennial  Church,  or  United  Society  of  Believers,'  Albany, 
1823. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  179 

it  was  not  until  October  25th,  1844,  that  the 
followers  of  Miller  took  a  red  aurora  for  the  final 
conflagration,  and  gathered  in  their  ascension  robes 
to  meet  the  last  day.9  But  the  Mormon  prophet  did 
not  make  the  mistake  of  selecting  a  date  for  the  end 
of  the  world.10  His  eschatology  possessed  an  air  of 
practicality.  His  millennium  was,  on  the  whole, 
marked  by  such  an  indefinite  immediateness  that 
there  was  little  to  criticize.  He  gives  this  confi 
dential  statement: — 

*  I  was  once  praying  very  earnestly  to  know  the 
time  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man,  when  I 
heard  a  voice  repeat  the  following : — 

'  Joseph,  my  son,  if  thou  livest  until  thou  art 
eighty-five  years  old,  thou  shalt  see  the  face  of 
the  Son  of  Man :  therefore  let  this  suffice,  and 
trouble  me  no  more  on  this  matter.' 

I  was  left  thus,  without  being  able  to  decide 
whether  this  coming  referred  to  the  beginning 
of  the  millennium  or  to  some  previous  appear 
ing,  or  whether  I  should  die  and  thus  see  His 
face.'11 

Apostle  Pratt,  who  derided  the  Millerites  and  their 
dates,  asserted  that  '  Joseph  Smith  never  was  mis- 


»Farke,  pp.  251-3. 

10  William  Miller,  « Evidence  of  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ 
about  the  year  1843.'     Troy,  1836. 
a « Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  §  130. 


i8o    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

taken  in  his  revelations.18  Unfortunately  ten  years 
before  this  Smith  had  made  his  classic  blunder  in 
telling  Bishop  Whitney  to  go  to  New  York,  Albany 
and  Boston,  and  'warn  the  people  of  those  cities 
that  the  hour  of  their  judgment  is  nigh.'13  But  in 
general  as  a  prophet  of  woe,  Joseph's  forebodings 
were  well  timed  ;  he  had  learned  when  to  get  on 
the  bear  side  of  the  millennial  market.  Thus,  the 
persecutions  of  the  Latter-day  church  and  the  gen 
eral  financial  depression  were  coincident  with  this 
announcement  :  — 

*  Hearken,  O  ye  people  of  my  church,  the 
voice  of  warning  shall  be  unto  all  people,  by 
the  mouths  of  my  disciples,  whom  I  have  chosen 
in  these  last  days. 

And  they  shall  go  forth  and  none  shall  stay 
them,  for  I  the  Lord  have  commanded  them. 

Behold,  this  is  mine  authority,  and  the  au 
thority  of  my  servants,  and  my  Preface  unto 

"'Times  and  Seasons/  5,  655.  Smith's  followers,  at  this  time, 
showed  less  sense  than  he;  thus  Martin  Harris  prophesied: — 
'Within  four  years  from  September,  1832,  there  will  not  be  one 
wicked  person  left  in  the  United  States ;  that  the  righteous  will  be 
gathered  to  Zion  (Missouri),  and  that  there  will  be  no  President 
over  these  United  States  after  that  time.  Second :  I  do  hereby 
assert  and  declare  that  within  four  years  from  the  date  hereof, 
every  sectarian  and  religious  denomination  in  the  United  States 
shall  be  broken  down,  and  every  Christian  shall  be  gathered  unto 
the  Mormonites,  and  the  rest  of  the  human  race  shall  perish.  If 
these  things  do  not  take  place,  I  will  hereby  consent  to  have  my 
hands  separated  from  my  body.' 

« « Doctrine  and  Covenants,"  §  84. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  181 

the  Book  of  my  Commandments,  which  I  have 
given  them  to  publish  unto  you,  O  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  :  — 

Wherefore,  fear  and  tremble,  O  ye  people,  for 
what  I  the  Lord  have  decreed,  in  them,  shall  be 
fulfilled ; 

And  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  that  they  who  go 
forth,  bearing  these  tidings  unto  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth,  to  them  is  power  given,  to  seal 
both  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  the  unbelieving 
and  rebellious ; 

Yea,  verily,  to  seal  them  up  unto  the  day 
when  the  wrath  of  God  shall  be  poured  out 
upon  the  wicked,  without  measure; 

Unto  the  day  when  the  Lord  shall  come  to 
recompense  unto  every  man  according  to  his 
work,  and  measure  to  every  man  according  to 
the  measure  which  he  has  measured  to  his  fel 
low  man. 

Wherefore  the  voice  of  the  Lord  is  unto  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  that  all  that  will  hear  may 
hear : 

Prepare  ye,  prepare  ye  for  that  which  is  to 
come,  for  the  Lord  is  nigh ; 

And  the  anger  of  the  Lord  is  kindled,  and 
his  sword  is  bathed  in  heaven,  and  it  shall  fall 
upon  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  ; 

Wherefore  I  the  Lord,  knowing  the  calamity 
which  should  come  upon  the  inhabitants  of  the 
earth,  called  upon  my  servant  Joseph.'  u 

»< «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  i.  For  the  orthodox  view 
of  these  coincidences,  compare  « Joseph  the  Seer,'  p.  191: — 'The 
persecutions  of  1838,  in  Missouri,  were  clearly  set  forth  in  a 


182     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

The  voice  of  warning  to  all  people  was  accom 
panied  with  promises  of  comfort  to  the  Saints.  In 
January,  1831,  there  came  this  message  :  'Behold 
the  enemy  is  combined,  fear  not  for  the  kingdom  is 
yours  and  I  hold  forth  and  deign  to  give  unto  you 
greater  riches,  even  the  land  of  promise  ;  and  that 
ye  might  escape  the  power  of  the  enemy,  I  gave 
unto  you  the  commandment,  that  ye  should  go  to 
the  Ohio.' 15 

The  spiritual  timeliness  of  the  early  oracles  is  in 
marked  contrast  to  the  unedifying  definiteness  of 
the  later  covenants  and  commandments.  One  ex 
ception  should  be  noted.  A  month  before  the 
founding  of  the  Church  '  a  commandment,  of  God 
and  not  of  man,'  was  given  to  Martin  Harris.  In 
this  it  was  said  :  'Thou  shalt  not  covet  thine  own 
property,  but  impart  it  freely  to  the  printing  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  Pay  the  printer's  debt.  Misery 
thou  shalt  receive,  if  thou  wilt  slight  these  coun- 

prophecy  given  through  Joseph  Smith,  at  Kirtland,  Ohio,  July 
236,  1837,  one  year  and  more  before  the  persecution  occurred. 
See  '  Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  105  :  9.  It  reads :  '  Verily,  verily, 
I  say  unto  you,  darkness  covereth  the  earth,  and  gross  darkness  the 
minds  of  the  people,  and  all  flesh  has  become  corrupt  before  my 
face.  Behold,  vengeance  cometh  speedily  upon  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth — a  day  of  wrath,  a  day  of  burning,  a  day  of  desolation, 
of  weeping,  of  mourning,  of  lamentation — and  as  a  whirlwind  it 
shall  come  upon  all  the  face  of  the  earth,  saith  the  Lord.  And 
upon  my  house  [the  church]  shall  it  begin,  and  from  my  house 
shall  it  go  forth,  saith  the  Lord.' 

15 « Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  40. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  183 

sels.' 16  As  time  went  on  the  personal  equation  and 
the  dollar  mark  became  more  conspicuous.  On 
April  26th,  1832,  a  month  after  being  tarred  and 
feathered  by  a  mob,  Joseph  received  the  message  be 
ginning,  'the  anger  of  God  kindleth  against  the  in 
habitants  of  the  earth.'  On  January  I9th,  1841,  at 
Nauvoo,  this  advice  reached  the  ears  of  the  prophet : 

'  And  now  I  say  unto  you,  as  pertaining  to  my 
boarding  house  which  I  have  commanded  you  to 
build  for  the  boarding  of  strangers,  let  it  be  built 
unto  my  name,  and  let  my  name  be  named  upon  it, 
and  let  my  servant  Joseph,  and  his  house  have  place 
therein,  from  generation  to  generation.' 17 

The  Saints  have  attempted  to  relieve  the  bathos  of 
Joseph's  revelations,18  by  quoting  the  so-called 


16 'Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  16. 

17 'Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  §  124.  Compare  the  last  revela 
tion  in  the  '  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  45  : — '  I  willeth 
not  that  my  servant  Frederick  should  sell  his  farm,  for  I  the  Lord 
willeth  to  retain  a  strong  hold  in  the  land  of  Kirtland.' 

18  Compare  'Joseph  the  Seer,'  p.  185  : — 'There  is  an  abundance 
of  documentary  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of  the  revelation 
showing  that  it  was  in  existence — in  print — as  early  as  1851,  nine 
years  before  the  rebellion.  Mr.  Beadle  in  his  work  against  the 
Mormons  states  that  he  copied  it  out  of  The  Seer,  a  work  published 
by  O.  Pratt,  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  in  1853,  seven  years  before  the 
rebellion.  And  Mr.  John  Hyde  who  wrote  a  work  against  the 
Mormons  entitled  "  Mormonism,"  which  was  issued  by  Fetridge  & 
Co.,  of  New  York  City,  in  1857,  cites  this  same  revelation  on  p. 
174,  and  he  did  it  in  order  to  prove  that  Joseph  was  a  false 
prophet.' 


1 84    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

'  Prophecy  of  the  Rebellion.'  It  is  indeed  a  remark 
able  forecast,19  but  its  authenticity  is  dubious.  The 
most  specific  revelation  of  this  kind  written  by 
Joseph,  occurred  as  early  as  March,  1831,  but  it  is 
more  pertinent  to  Armageddon  than  the  Civil  War: 

19 '  Revelation  and  Prophecy  on  War,'  given  through  '  Joseph  the 
Seer,'  December  25th,  1832: — Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  con 
cerning  the  wars  that  will  shortly  come  to  pass,  beginning  at  the 
rebellion  of  South  Carolina,  which  will  eventually  terminate  in  the 
death  and  misery  of  many  souls. 

The  days  will  come  that  war  will  be  poured  out  upon  all  na 
tions,  beginning  at  that  place. 

For  behold,  the  Southern  States  shall  be  divided  against  the 
Northern  States,  and  the  Southern  States  will  call  on  other  nations, 
even  the  nation  of  Great  Britain,  as  it  is  called,  and  they  shall  also 
call  upon  other  nations,  in  order  to  defend  themselves  against  other 
nations ;  and  thus  war  shall  be  poured  out  upon  all  nations. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  after  many  days,  slaves  shall  rise  up 
against  their  masters,  who  shall  be  marshaled  and  disciplined  for 
war: 

And  it  came  to  pass  also,  that  the  remnants  who  are  left  of  the 
land  will  marshal  themselves,  and  shall  become  exceedingly  angry, 
and  shall  vex  the  Gentiles  with  a  sore  vexation ; 

And  thus,  with  the  sword,  and  by  bloodshed,  the  inhabitants  of 
the  earth  shall  mourn;  and  with  famine,  and  plague,  and  earth 
quakes,  and  the  thunder  of  heaven,  and  the  fierce  and  vivid  light 
ning  also,  shall  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  be  made  to  feel  the 
wrath,  and  indignation  and  chastening  hand  of  an  Almighty  God, 
until  the  consumption  decreed,  hath  made  a  full  end  of  all 
nations ; 

That  the  cry  of  the  Saints,  and  of  the  blood  of  the  Saints,  shall 
cease  to  come  up  into  the  ears  of  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth,  from  the 
earth,  to  be  avenged  of  their  enemies. 

Wherefore,  stand  ye  in  holy  places,  and  be  not  moved,  until  the 
day  of  the  Lord  come ;  for  behold  it  cometh  quickly,  saith  the 
Lord.  Amen.' 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  185 

— 'ye  hear  of  wars  in  foreign  lands,  but  behold  I  say 
unto  you  they  are  nigh  even  unto  your  doors,  and 
not  many  years  hence  ye  shall  hear  of  wars  in  your 
own  lands.'30 

To  turn  to  Smith's  doings  as  a  seer:  here  was  the 
first  of  his  dabblings  with  the  occult.  How  far  the 
'  wonderful  power '  of  '  Peep-stone  Joe '  was 
fictitious,  how  far  due  to  unconscious  self-sugges 
tion  it  is  hard  to  decide.  The  statements  of  his 
followers  make  his  actions  mystic;  the  statements 
of  his  family  suggest  the  hypnotic;  his  own  de 
scription  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim  as  'like  unto 

20 'Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  48,  copied  from  an 
original  copy  in  the  Berrian  collection.  As  regards  the  Prophecy 
of  the  Rebellion  in  both  its  enlarged  and  original  form,  the 
following  dates  should  be  noted.  Smith  was  killed  June  27, 
1844.  In  the  •  History  of  Joseph  Smith,'  in  the  «  Times  and  Sea 
sons '  of  November  I,  1844,  a  reference  to  President  Jackson's 
proclamation  of  1832,  against  the  South  Carolina  Nullifiers  is  in 
serted  between  Smith's  revelations  of  December  6,  1832  and  De 
cember  27,  1832.  The  alleged  revelation  of  December  25th  is 
significantly  omitted.  Again,  this  latter  revelation  does  not  occur 
in  the  first  and  only  edition  of  the  «  Book  of  Commandments, ' 
(1833)  nor  even  in  the  third  edition  of  the  '  Doctrine  and  Cove 
nants  '  (1845).  The  same  is  true  of  the  shorter  revelation  of 
April  2,  1843,  as  given  in  '  Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  §  140,  (later 
editions  than  1845) :  — 

'  I  prophesy,  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  God,  that  the  commence 
ment  of  the  difficulties  which  will  cause  much  bloodshed  previous 
to  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man  will  be  in  South  Carolina.  It 
may  probably  arise  through  the  slave  question.  This  a  voice  de 
clared  to  me,  while  I  was  praying  earnestly  on  the  subject,  De 
cember  52th,  1832.' 


1 86     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

crystal '  at  once  suggests  that  he  was  an  inadvertent 
crystal  gazer.  Although  his  psychoses  may  be  put 
in  terms  of  present  day  experiment,  his  own 
notions  must  be  traced  to  his  historic  setting.  His 
contemporaries  were  anachronisms;  belief  in  divina 
tion, — both  through  'second  sight'  and  the  'shew 
stone ' — was  brought  over  in  the  Mayflower  along 
with  other  antique  mental  furniture.21  Without  har 
king  back  to  old-world  superstitions,23  it  is  a  fact  that 
divining  rods  and  seer  stones  were  still  used  to  find 
springs  and  locate  hidden  treasures  in  the  rural 
districts  of  America.  Especially  did  money  diggers 
from  Cape  Cod  to  Lake  Erie  have  their  tales  and 
fables.  So  Joseph's  father  was  a  firm  believer  in 

31  Edward  Eggleston, '  The  Transit  of  Civilization  from  England 
to  America  in  the  Seventeenth  Century,'  New  York,  1901,  Chapter 
I.  Mental  Outfit  of  the  Early  Colonists.  Also  Joseph  Jastrow, 
1  Fact  and  Fable  in  Psychology,'  Boston,  1900,  p.  224. 

22  Albert  Moll,  «  Hypnotism,'  New  York,  1901,  pp.  i,  2.  'The 
fact  that  particular  psychical  states  can  be  induced  in  human 
beings  by  certain  physical  processes  has  long  been  known  among 
the  Oriental  peoples,  and  was  utilized  by  them  for  religious  pur 
poses.  Kiesewetter  attributes  the  early  soothsaying  by  means  of 
precious  stones  to  hypnosis,  which  was  induced  by  steadily  gazing 
at  the  stones.  This  is  also  true  of  divination  by  looking  into 
vessels  and  crystals,  as  the  Egyptians  have  long  been  in  the  habit 
of  doing,  and  as  has  often  been  done  in  Europe  :  by  Cagliostro, 
for  example.  These  hypnotic  phenomena  are  also  found  to  have 
existed  several  thousand  years  ago  among  the  Persian  magi 
(Fischer),  as  well  as  up  to  the  present  day  among  Indian  yogis  and 
fakirs,  who  throw  themselves  into  the  hypnotic  state  by  means  of 
fixation  of  the  gaze.' 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  187 

witchcraft  and  other  supernatural  things,  and  Joseph 
himself  refers  to  the  divining  rod  as  the  rod  of 
nature  and  informs  his  friend  Cowdery  'behold 
there  is  no  other  power  save  God,  that  can  cause 
this  rod  of  nature  to  work  in  your  hands,  for  it  is 
the  work  of  God.'23 

The  very  charges  against  the  Smiths  betrayed  the 
credulity  of  the  times.  The  '  seeing-stone'  with 
which  Joseph  is  alleged  to  have  sought  for  the 
Susquehanna  silver  mine,  had  previously  been  used 
in  attempts  to  trace  a  lost  child. *  As  if  it  were  a 

M  «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  7. 

84  E.  C.  Blackman, «  History  of  Susquehanna  County,  Pa.,'  1873,  p. 
477  : — Mr.  J.  B.  Buck  narrates  the  following  : — «  Joe  Smith  was  here 
lumbering  soon  after  my  marriage,  which  was  in  1818,  some  years 
before  he  took  to  "  peeping,"  and  before  diggings  were  commenced 
under  his  direction.  These  were  ideas  he  gained  later.  The 
stone  which  he  afterwards  used  was  then  in  the  possession  of  Jack 
Belcher,  of  Gibson,  who  obtained  it  while  at  Salina,  New  York, 
engaged  in  drawing  salt.  Belcher  bought  it  because  it  was  said  to 
be  "  a  seeing  stone."  I  have  often  seen  it.  It  was  a  green  stone, 
with  brown,  irregular  spots  on  it.  It  was  a  little  longer  than  a 
goose's  egg,  and  about  the  same  thickness.  When  he  brought  it 
home  and  covered  it  with  a  hat,  Belcher's  little  boy  was  one  of  the 
first  to  look  into  the  hat,  and  as  he  did  so  he  said  he  saw  a  candle. 
The  second  time  he  looked  in  he  exclaimed,  "  I've  found  my 
hatchet !  " — (it  had  been  lost  two  years) — and  immediately  ran  for 
it  to  the  spot  shown  him  through  the  stone,  and  it  was  there.  The 
boy  was  soon  beset  by  neighbors  far  and  near  to  reveal  to  them 
hidden  things,  and  he  succeeded  marvelously.  Even  the  wander 
ings  of  a  lost  child  were  traced  by  him — the  distracted  parents 
coming  to  him  three  times  for  directions,  and  in  each  case  finding 
signs  that  the  child  had  been  in  the  places  he  designated,  but  at 


i88     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

recrudescence  of  fetish  worship,  stones  of  strange 
shape  or  peculiar  markings  were  highly  prized,  as 
well  as  those  of  a  mysterious  origin.  An  existing 
Mormon  seer  stone,  from  Missouri,  is  nothing  but 
an  Indian  slate  gorget.25  Three  generations  ago 
there  seems  to  have  been  only  an  inkling  of  the 
truth,  that  the  'influence'  was  to  be  attributed 
rather  to  the  person  seeing  than  to  the  object,  to 
the  seer  rather  than  to  the  stone. 

Joseph's  own  neighbors  were  particularly  in  the 
dark;  one  Willard  Chase  sent  sixty  or  seventy  miles 
for  a  certain  conjurer;  Chase's  sister  found  a  green 
glass  through  which  she  could  see  very  many  won 
derful  things.26  Whether  this  was  the  identical  stone 
which  Joseph  used  is  conjectural  and  immaterial,27 
although  there  is  new  information  on  the  point.28 

last  it  was  found  starved  to  death.  Joe  Smith,  conceiving  the  idea 
of  making  a  fortune  through  a  similar  process  of  "  seeing,"  bought 
the  stone  of  Belcher  and  then  began  his  operations  in  directing 
where  hidden  treasures  could  be  found.  His  first  diggings  were 
near  Captain  Buck's  sawmill,  at  Red  Rock ;  but,  because  his  fol 
lowers  broke  the  rule  of  silence,  "  the  enchantment  removed  the 
deposits." ' 

55  Compare  Figure  24,  p.  650,  «  Handbook  of  Reference,'  United 
States  National  Museum,  1888. 

26  «  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  106,  109. 

27  Martin  Harris  in  an  interview,  in  January,  1859,  said  that 
Joseph's  stone  was  dug  from  the  well  of  Mason  Chase.     Tiffany's 
Monthly ;  May,  1859. 

2s «  On  the  request  of  the  court,  he  [Joseph,  junior]  exhibited  the 
stone.  It  was  about  the  size  of  a  small  hen's  egg,  in  the  shape  of  a 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  189 

How  early  he  stumbled  on  the  discovery  of  his 
'gift '  is  more  important.29  His  father  testified  that, 
when  a  lad,  'Joseph  heard  of  a  neighboring  girl, 
who  could  look  into  a  glass  and  see  anything  how 
ever  hidden  from  others.  He  looked  into  this  glass 
which  was  placed  in  a  hat  to  exclude  the  light.  He 
was  greatly  surprised  to  see  but  one  thing,  which 
was  a  small  stone,  a  great  way  off.  It  soon  became 
luminous  and  dazzled  his  eyes,  and  after  a  short  time 
it  became  as  intense  as  the  midday  sun.  .  .  . 
He  often  had  an  opportunity  to  look  in  the  glass,  and 
with  the  same  result.  The  luminous  stone  alone 
attracted  his  attention.' w 

By  1825,  Joseph's  fame  as  a  'peeper'  was  wide 
spread.  Josiah  Stoal  came  from  Chenango  County 
to  get  Joseph's  'assistance  in  digging  for  a  silver 
mine,  on  account  of  having  heard  that  he  possessed 

high  instepped  shoe.  It  was  composed  of  layers  of  different  colors 
passing  diagonally  through  it.  ...  Joseph  Smith,  senior,  was 
present,  and  was  sworn  as  a  witness.  He  confirmed  at  great  length 
all  that  his  son  had  said  in  his  examination.  ...  He  described 
very  many  instances  of  his  finding  hidden  and  stolen  goods.'  From 
W.  D.  Purple,  manuscript  editorial  in  Norwich,  N.  Y.  Union,  April 
28, 1877.  Purple  took  notes  at  the  trial  of  Joseph  Smith,  senior,  in 
February,  1826,  at  South  Bainbridge,  Pa.,  before  Albert  Neeley, 
J.P. 

» The  story  that  Joseph's  '  gift '  was  « Scotch  second  sight '  is 
well  found  but  not  true  ;  his  ancestry  was  English. 

30 W.  D.  Purple.  Compare  also  'Book  of  Mormon/  p.  328. 
The  stone  called  Gazelem  « a  stone  which  shineth  forth  in  darkness 
unto  light.' 


190    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

certain  keys,  by  which  he  could  discern  things  in 
visible  to  the  natural  eye.'31 

So  far  the  youthful  seer  had  been  using  a  trans 
lucent  quartz  pebble  such  as  was  to  be  found  in  the 
glacial  drift  of  western  New  York.  In  September, 
1827,  he  procured  his  'interpreters.'  These  he  him 
self  described  as  two  transparent  stones,32  and  his 
mother  as  three-cornered  diamonds,  which  he  kept 
constantly  about  his  person.83  If  one  may  hazard  a 
guess,  these  'curious  instruments,  called  by  the 
ancients  the  Urim  and  Thummim,'34  were  probably 
a  couple  of  prisms  from  an  old-fashioned  chandelier. 
Whatever  the  object,  the  purpose  was  the  same, — 
to  produce  a  condition  suitable  for  the  '  seeing  of 
visions.'  What  this  condition  really  was,  Joseph 
knew  as  little  as  the  Specularii  of  old.  But  that 
many  people  hypnotize  themselves,85  without  know 
ing  it,  is  as  true  as  that  Monsieur  Jourdain  had  been 
speaking  prose  all  his  life,  without  knowing  it. 

Since  the  classic  experiments  of  Braid,  the  Man 
chester  surgeon,  the  means  of  producing  hypnosis 
are  too  well  known  to  need  description:  in  a  likely 
subject,  steady  gazing  at  anything  from  a  teapot  to 
the  tip  of  the  nose  will  induce  the  primary  state  of 

« «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  92. 
32 « Times  and  Seasons/  3,  707. 
33 '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  106. 
3*  •  Joseph  Smith  the  Seer,'  p.  19. 
as  Moll,  p.  389. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  191 

reverie.  Of  the  scientific  procedure  Joseph,  of  course, 
was  absolutely  ignorant,  yet  his  method  of  '  glass- 
looking,'  was,  in  fact,  one  of  the  easiest  ways  of  pro 
ducing  slight  hypnotization,  namely  that  by  sensorial 
excitement.  He  did  not  need  strong  or  luminous 
rays,  but  only  that  slight  and  prolonged  excitement, 
gained  by  fixing  the  eyes  on  an  object,  brilliant  or 
otherwise,  placed  near  the  eyes.36  Unlike  some  of 
his  followers  Joseph  does  not  seem  to  have  been  es 
pecially  liable  to  what  they  denominated  the  '  open 
vision.' "  His  was  not  the  rarer  type  of  person,  who 

3«  Alfred  Binet  and  Charles  Fere,  « Animal  Magnetism,'  New 
York,  1898,  p.  93. 

37 'Times  and  Seasons,' 5,  661.  Two  instances  of  the  'open 
vision '  with  attendant  hallucinations,  somewhat  similar  to  Joseph's 
visions  of  the  plates  are  as  follows:  '  Faith  Promoting  Series,'  num 
ber  12,  p.  79.  Amasa  Potter,  in  Picton,  Australia,  in  1856,  said, 
« At  meeting  after  speaking  a  few  words  I  became  dumb, — 
when  I  thought  I  saw  several  lines  of  large  letters  printed  on  the 
walls  of  the  house,  and  I  commenced  to  read  them  and  spoke 
about  one  hour.  When  the  letters  faded  from  my  sight,  I  then 
stopped  speaking.  I  could  not  tell  all  that  I  had  said ;  but  my 
companion  told  me  it  was  an  excellent  discourse.'  .... 
Littlefield,  in  his  '  Reminiscences,'  p.  203,  gives  this  account  of  an 
experience  of  July  13,  1848,  on  the  ship '  Forest  Monarch,'  from  New 
York,  in  a  fierce  Atlantic  storm:  'At  1 2 o'clock  A.  M.  ...  I 
was  clinging  with  both  arms  clasped  tightly  around  a  post.  .  .  . 
While  in  this  position  a  panorama  of  my  life  passed  in  review  be 
fore  me.  Two  or  three  words,  as  if  shaped  in  letters  of  burnished 
gold  or  written  by  flames  of  fire,  were  presented.  These  words 
were  so  chosen  as  to  be  indicative  of  some  unwise  act  or  sinful 
deed.  They  would  remain  there,  undiminished  in  brightness,  un 
til  I  had  earnestly  and  humbly  implored  forgiveness.  .  .  . 


192    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

can  call  up  the  hallucinative  image,  spontaneously 
and  while  awake.  His  acts,  as  a  seer,  required  time, 
preparation  and  some  apparatus.  An  eyewitness 
thus  describes  his  methods:  '  At  times  when  Brother 
Joseph  would  attempt  to  translate,  he  would  look 
into  the  hat  in  which  the  stone  was  placed,  he 
found  he  was  spiritually  blind  and  could  not 
translate.  He  told  us  that  his  mind  dwelt  too 
much  on  earthly  things,  and  various  causes  would 
make  him  incapable  of  proceeding  with  the  trans 
lation.  When  in  this  condition  he  would  go  out 
and  pray,  and  when  he  became  sufficiently  hum 
ble  before  God,  he  could  then  proceed  with  the 
translation.  Now  we  see  how  very  strict  the  Lord  is ; 
and  how  He  requires  the  heart  of  man  to  be  just  right 
in  His  sight,  before  he  can  receive  revelation  from 
Him.88 

These  fluctuations  in  the  psychological  moment— 
really  due  to  a  restless  temperament — were  inter 
preted  as  due  to  the  alternate  granting  and  with 
drawal  of  the  '  gift.' 59  For  this  reason,  there  is  little 

When  I  had  duly  repented,  that  set  of  words  would  pass  away  and 
others  take  their  place,  until  mental  restitution  was  made  as  before. 
These  manifestations  continued  to  alternate  for  a  time  and  then 
passed  away.' 

as  David  Whitmer,  '  Address,'  p.  30. 

3» Compare  'Book  of  Commandments,' p.  13.  A  Revelation, 
May,  1829,  after  the  loss  of  the  116  pages  of  manuscript — '  you  also 
lost  your  gift  at  the  same  time,  nevertheless  it  has  also  been  re 
stored  unto  you  again.' 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  193 

doubt  that  Joseph,  at  least  at  the  start,  considered  his 
'  translations '  to  be  inspired.  For  all  that,  his  mystic  ' 
writings  may  be  resolved  into  their  elements  of  Bible, 
knowledge,  petty  information  and  every-day  exper-' 
ience.  It  is  curious  and  noteworthy  to  trace  the 
workings  of  the  seer's  imagination  in  the  lather  of 
words  given  by  his  devotee:  '  I  will  now  give  you 
a  description  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Book  of 
Mormon  was  translated.  Joseph  Smith  would  put 
the  seer  stone  into  a  hat,  and  put  his  face  in  the  hat, 
drawing  it  closely  around  his  face  to  exclude  the 
light;  and  in  the  darkness  the  spiritual  light  would 
shine.  A  piece  of  something  resembling  parchment 
would  appear,  and  on  that  appeared  the  writing. 
One  character  at  a  time  would  appear,  and  under  it 
was  the  interpretation  in  English.  Brother  Joseph 
would  read  off  the  English  to  Oliver  Cowdery,  who 
was  his  principal  scribe,  and  when  it  was  written 
down  and  repeated  to  Brother  Joseph  to  see  if  it  was 
correct,  then  it  would  disappear,  and  another  charac 
ter  with  the  interpretation  would  appear.  Thus  the 
Book  of  Mormon  was  translated  by  the  gift  and 
power  of  God,  and  not  by  any  power  of  man.'40 

That  the  Book  of  Mormon  was  an  imaginative 
elaboration  of  presentative  material,  is  corroborated 
by  this  account  of  its  mystic  genesis.  Joseph's 
process  of  translating  by  means  of  his  Urim  and 

<«  Whitmer,  p.  12. 


194     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Thummim41  may  be  compared  with  a  recent  ex 
perimental  study  of  visions.42  Although  artificially 
produced  they  resolved  themselves  mainly  into 
natural  sources,  namely,— what  had  been  previously 
seen,  heard,  read  and  thought,  besides  representa 
tions  and  revivals  of  the  experience  of  the  hyp 
notic  personality  of  which  the  waking  conscious 
ness  has  never  had  knowledge. 

All  this  is  applicable  to  Joseph's  first  act  of 
'translating.'  To  those  who  care  to  dig  below  the 
threshold  of  consciousness,  the  mystic  after-image, 
the  recrudescence  of  the  subconscious  may  be  an 
explanation  of  the  alleged  Greek  and  Hebrew  letters 
in  the  transcription  of  the  gold  plates.  One  glance 
at  a  Bible  in  the  original  tongues  may  have  been 
enough  to  stamp  the  visual  image  on  the  boy's  im 
pressionable  mind.  This  objectification  of  images, 
which  exist  unconsciously  in  the  memory,  is  a  fact 
in  dreams  and  a  likely  surmise  as  to  the  analogous 
phenomena  of  semi-hypnosis.  Whatever  the  ex 
planation,  the  fact  is  this, — Joseph  the  seer  was  a 
good  visualizer.*3 

41  In  '  Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  707,  Smith  gave  this  fabulous  ac 
count  : — «  With  the  records  was  found  a  curious  instrument  which 
the  ancients  called  "  Urim  and  Thummim,"  which  consisted  of  two 
transparent  stones  set  in  the  rim  of  a  bow  fastened  to  a  breastplate. 
Through  the  medium  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim  I  translated  the 
record  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God.' 

«  Brain,  21,  528. 

43  Joseph's  case  is  curiously  like  that  of  a  present  day  sceptic, 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  195 

Smith's  method  was  so  far  the  commonplace 
method  of  the  trance-medium.  The  act  of  fixing 
the  eyes  on  one  particular  point,  supplemented  by  a 
state  of  quietude  through  prayer,  prepared  the  way 
for  the  influence  of  self-suggestion.  His  external 
acts  are  one  thing,  the  subtle  and  self-deceiving 
nature  of  his  hallucinations  another.  He  knew  no 
more  about  the  subconscious  self  and  the  law  of 
association  of  ideas,  than  he  did  of  the  fact  that  his 
'Reformed  Egyptian'  resembled  the  irregular  and 
spasmodic  writings  of  hypnotic  subjects.  Now  that 
the  transcription  of  the  gold  plates  is  a  veritable 
piece  of  automatic  writing,  is  evident  from  a  com- 

who  was  once  an  esoteric  mystic.  It  was  Alfred  Le  Baron  who 
claimed  he  could  see  'sentences  in  English  characters  among  a 
number  of  ideographs  on  an  Egyptian  slab  of  stone.'  «  Proceedings 
of  the  Society  for  Psychical  Research,'  12,  287. — This  analogy  may 
be  taken  for  what  it  is  worth.  One  can  prove  anything  from  these 
modern  dabblings  in  the  occult.  In  the  same  way,  care  should  be 
taken  in  the  application  of  the  hypnotic  principles  of  the  hysterical 
school  of  Charcot.  As  has  been  said  regarding  the  choice  of  hys 
terical  patients,  « Take  care,  or  you  will  find  what  you  are  looking 
for.'  If  emphasis  is  laid  on  the  abnormal  side  of  Joseph  Smith's 
case,  his  states  resemble  the  not  uncommon  condition  found  among 
hystero-epileptics.  As  the  physiology  of  the  subject  is  admittedly 
obscure,  in  this  study,  the  more  normal  principles  of  the  suggestion 
school  of  Nancy  are  chiefly  utilized.  Parsimony  demands  that  the 
hypnotic  aspects  of  the  Mormons  should  be  explained  as  mental, 
rather  than  physical  reflexes.  Yet,  as  for  Smith  himself,  the  sub 
ject  is  complex  and  demands  compromise ;  on  the  one  hand,  his 
self-induced  states  of  hypnosis  were  synchronous  with  his  youthful 
ill  health ;  on  the  other  hand,  his  suggestive  influence  over  others 
began  soon  after  his  quasi-epileptic  seizures  ceased. 


196    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

parison  of  the  reproduction  of  the  '  Caractors '  with 
modern  experimental  scrawlings.  An  attempt  of  a 
patient,  in  a  semi-hypnotic  state,  through  planchette 
or  a  pencil  held  loosely  in  the  hands,  will  show 
equally  mysterious  figures  and  back-handed  signa 
tures.44 

The  relation  of  Joseph's  crystal  gazing  to  the  com 
position  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  brings  more  im 
portant  information.  It  furnishes  an  explanation  of 
certain  peculiarities  in  the  text.  The  style  of  the 
ancient  prophet  Mormon  is  the  style  of  the  modern 
spiritualist.  The  lack  of  punctuation  may  be  laid 
to  the  fact  of  dictation,  but  the  slips  in  grammar 
and  the  endless  repetition  of  such  phrases  as  '  came 
to  pass,'  resemble  the  painful  errors  and  damnable 
iteration  of  messages  from  the  unseen  world.45 

Furthermore,  the  length  and  complexity  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  is  rendered  additionally  possible,  if 
one  cares  to  believe  the  assertion,  that  hypnotic  sug 
gestion  arouses  into  activity  the  dormant  psychic 
power, — brings  to  the  subject's  fingers'  ends  all  the 
knowledge  that  he  has  ever  had,  and,  finally,  in- 

44  Moll,  p.  267. 

45  At  a  spiritualistic  seance  of  a  Boston  medium,  in  1900,  I  no 
ticed  a  marked  difference  between  the  normal  and  trance  states. 
The  set  speeches,  evidently  learned  by  heart,  were  Johnsonian  in 
their  correctness,  but  the  messages  from  the  departed  in  their  gram 
matical  lapses  and  turns  of  expression  betrayed  the  rustic  origin  of 
the  seeress. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  197 

spires    him  with  an  overwhelming  confidence  in 
himself.46 

Was  it  hyperaesthesia  or  hard  work  that  evolved 
the  Record  of  the  Nephites  ?  To  those  who  neither 
hanker  after  theories  of  the  subliminal  self,*7  nor  be 
lieve  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  required  any  quick 
ening  of  the  intellect,48  the  author's  crystal  gazing 
may  yet  have  important  relations  to  his  writings. 
At  the  least,  it  was  a  moving  cause  of  the  acts  of 
his  disciples.  Because  of  their  magical  guise,  his 
associates  believed  that  they  were  bound  to  take 
down  their  seer's  every  utterance;  consequently, 
they  gave  him  abundant  help.  Emma  Smith  con 
fessed  that  she  wrote  at  her  husband's  dictation 
day  after  day;49  while  Christian  Whitmer  and 


*  Compare  R.  O.  Mason,  '  Telepathy  and  the  Subliminal  Self,' 
New  York,  1896,  p.  78. 

<T<  Harvard  Psychological  Studies,'  September,  1896.  Experi 
menters  succeeded  in  reproducing  in  a  waking  state  of  complete 
normality,  the  first  three  essential  elements  of  the  second  person 
ality,  viz. : — i.  General  tendency  to  movement  without  conscious 
motor  impulse ;  2.  Tendency  of  an  idea  in  the  mind  to  go  over  into 
a  movement  involuntarily  and  unconsciously ;  3.  Tendency  of  a 
sensory  current  to  pass  over  into  a  motor  reaction  subconsciously ; 
4.  Unconscious  exercise  of  memory  and  invention. 

49  Moll,  p.  268.  « The  automatic  hand  writes  without  concentra- 
tion  of  thought  on  the  writer's  part.' 

«  Wyle,  '  Mormon  Portraits,'  p.  203.  Statement  of  Emma  Hale 
Smith  to  her  son.  « In  writing  for  your  father  I  frequently  wrote 
day  after  day,  often  sitting  at  the  table  close  by  him,  he  sitting  with 
his  face  buried  in  his  hat  with  the  stone  in  it.' 


198     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMON1SM 

Oliver  Cowdery  were  his  scribes  for  seven  solid 
months.50 

To  Joseph's  performances  as  a  seer,  the  usual 
clairvoyant  and  telepathic  embellishments  were 
added.  Martin  Harris  said  that  Joseph  proposed  to 
bind  his  '  directors '  on  his  eyes  and  run  a  race  with 
him  in  the  woods.51  David  Whitmer  avowed  that 
this  was  the  same  stone  used  by  the  Jaredites  at 
Babel.  He  relates  that  he  could  see  nothing  through 
it,  but  that  Joseph,  placing  it  to  his  eyes,  could  read 
signs  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  distant,  and  tell 
exactly  what  was  transpiring  there.  He  then  adds 
the  statement:— 'When  I  went  to  Harmony  after 
him,  he  told  me  the  name  of  every  hotel  at  which  I 
had  stopped  on  the  road,  read  the  signs,  and  de 
scribed  various  scenes  without  having  ever  received 
any  information  from  me.'" 

The  most  marvelous  occurrence  is  one  that  is 
said  to  have  happened  about  June,  1829.  Joseph's 

80  The  actual  writing  of  the  '  Book  of  Mormon  '  appears  to  have 
taken  about  seven  months.  (December,  i827-February,  1828; 
April  12-June  14,  1828;  April  y-June  II,  1829.)  Taking  the 
first  edition  as  588  printed  pages,  this  gives  an  average  of  between 
two  and  three  pages  a  day. 

&'  Tiffany's  Monthly,  May,  1859.  Compare  'Joseph  Smith  the 
Seer,'  p.  19. — «  With  the  records  was  found  a  curious  instrument, 
called  by  the  ancients  the  Urim  and  Thummim.  This  was  in  use  in 
ancient  times  by  persons  called  seers.  It  was  an  instrument  by  the 
use  of  which  they  received  revelation  of  things  distant,  or  of  things 
past  or  future.' 

•»•  Address,'  p.  n. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  199 

mother  recounts  that,  as  he  was  translating  by 
means  of  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  he  received, 
'  instead  of  the  words  of  the  Book,  a  command 
ment  to  write  a  letter  to  a  man  by  the  name  of 
David  Whitmer,  who  lived  in  Waterloo,  requesting 
him  to  come  immediately  with  his  team,  and  con 
vey  himself  and  Oliver  to  his  own  residence,  as  an 
evil-designing  people  were  seeking  to  take  away 
his  (Joseph's)  life,  in  order  to  prevent  the  work  of 
God  from  going  forth  to  the  world.63 

Of  these  three  occurrences  comment  is  almost 
superfluous.  The  running  blindfolded  is  not  said  to 
have  taken  place;  if  it  had,  it  could  be  compared  to 
the  heightened  sense-perception  of  the  hypnotic 
subject,  when  he  walks  about  a  room  with  bandaged 
eyes,  or  in  absolute  darkness,  without  striking 
against  anything.54  Again  Joseph's  reading  inn- 
signs,  miles  away,  is  no  proof  of  the  dubieties  of 
supersensual  thought  transference.55  As  the  added 

63  '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  135. 

"Moll,  p.  115. 

5*  On  the  semi-occult  aspects  of  crystal  gazing,  compare  Frank 
Podmore,  '  Apparitions  and  Thought  Transference,'  London,  1900, 
p.  352.  Other  instances  among  the  Mormons  of  '  premonitions,' 
1  veridical  visions  '  and  '  sympathetic  clairvoyance,'  are  as  follows  : 
— (I.)  P.  P.  Pratt,  «  Autobiography,'  p.  368, — On  June  27,  1844, 
Joseph  and  Hyrum  were  killed.  I  was  constrained  by  the  spirit 
a  day  or  so  before  to  start  prematurely  for  home  [Nauvoo]  without 
knowing  why  or  wherefore.  As  my  brother  William  and  I  talked, 
a  strange  and  solemn  awe  came  over  me,  as  if  the  powers  of  hell 


200    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

details  show,  the  itinerant  seer  had  traveled  the 
same  road  as  his  disciple,  who  took  no  account  of 
Joseph's  naturally  retentive  memory.  Lastly  the 
form  of  the  letter  to  the  Whitmers,  and  their  ful 
filling  the  writer's  request  implies  a  previous  ac- 

were  let  loose.  I  was  so  overwhelmed  with  sorrow  I  could  hardly 
speak.  This  was  June  27th,  in  the  afternoon,  as  near  as  I  can  judge 
at  the  hour  Joseph  died.' — (2.)  In  the  Nauvoo  Neighbor,  March, 
1844,  Benjamin  Andrews  reports  a  vision  at  the  time  the  Latter-day 
Saints  were  driven  from  Jackson  county,  Missouri, — '  I  was  at  the 
capital  of  the  United  States.  In  the  archives  of  state  a  man,  one 
ot  the  ancients  of  the  nation,  took  two  or  three  small  boxes  and 
said  '  These  were  the  archives  of  state,  but  they  are  turned  to 
blood.1  I  saw  the  box  turned  to  blood.' — (3.)  B.  Brown,  'Testi 
monies,'  p.  12. — '  One  Sunday  morning,  while  opening  the  meeting 
with  prayer,  the  gift  of  tongues  came  upon  me  but  I  quenched  the 
Spirit.  Immediately  another  broke  out  in  tongues,  of  which  the 
interpretation  was,  « the  Lord  knew  we  were  anxious  to  learn  of 
the  affairs  of  our  brethren  in  Missouri,  and  that  if  we  would  hum 
ble  ourselves,  He  would  reveal  unto  us.'  Missouri  was  some  thou 
sands  of  miles  from  Portland.  In  a  fortnight  a  letter  confirmed 
the  message  at  or  about  the  time  of  the  massacre  at  Haun's  Mill.' — 
(4.)  The  same  event  in  Indiana  in  1838,  was  announced  by  a 
variety  of  the  so-called  « simultaneous  apparition.'  Littlefield,  p. 
69,  quotes  the  statement  of  John  Hammer : — '  We  were  standing 
there  exactly  at  the  time  this  bloody  butchery  was  committed  and 
of  course  were  all  looking  eagerly  in  the  direction  of  the  mill. 
While  in  this  attitude  a  crimson  colored  vapor,  like  a  mist  or  thin 
cloud,  ascended  up  from  the  precise  place  where  we  knew  the 
mill  to  be  located.  This  transparent  pillar  of  blood  remained 
.  .  .  .  far  into  the  fatal  night.  At  that  hour  we  had  not  heard 
a  word  of  what  had  taken  place  at  the  mill,  but  as  quick  as  my 
mother  and  aunt  saw  this  red,  blood-like  token,  they  commenced 
to  wring  their  hands  and  moan,  declaring  they  knew  that  their 
husbands  had  been  murdered.' 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  201 

quaintance  with  that  family.  In  brief,  Joseph's 
failures  are  in  accord  with  the  modern  failures  in 
mental  telegraphy,  through  the  medium  of  crys 
tals.56  The  alleged  long-distance  messages  were 
simply  '  reproduced  past  experiences  without  recog 
nition.'  Other  Mormons  may  furnish  telepathic  ex 
periences,  but  they  are  more  curious  than  con 
vincing. 

Thus  far  Smith's  occult  performances  meet  with 
psychological  negation ;  this  is  not  the  result  in  their 
ethical  import,  if  the  inference  is  allowable.  It  is 
somewhere  in  here  that  the  dividing  line  must  be 
drawn  between  self-deception  and  conscious  du 
plicity.  From  the  silence  in  his  own  writings,  as  to 
these  three  episodes,  it  is  evident  that  the  prophet 
and  seer  did  not  believe  himself  an  entire  success  as 
clairvoyant  and  mind  reader.  And  more  than  that  as 
respects  the  translating  of  the  plates,  there  is  a  sus 
picion  that  he  early  recognized  that  there  was  some 
thing  the  matter.  To  his  progenitors  anything 
preternatural  was  supernatural ;  to  the  prophet  the 
supernatural  was  now  merging  into  the  merely  ab 
normal,  else  he  would  neither  have  persevered  in  his 
methods  of  obfustication,  nor  have  tried  to  monopo- 

66 'Society  for  Psychical  Research,'  12,  259.  Prof.  J.  H.  Hys- 
lop  in  <  Some  Experiments  in  Crystal  Visions,'  found  « nothing 
of  an  apparently  telepathic  nature  or  any  other  kind  of  supernormal 
psychological  experience.' 


202     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

lize  the  use  of  the  seer-stone,"  nor  finally  have 
given  it  up  altogether.58  The  various  changes  in 
his  methods  are  especially  significant.  As  money 
digger,  he  was  wont  to  hide  his  face  in  a  hat;  as 
translator,  he  sometimes  kept  behind  a  curtain,59 
dictating  to  his  scribe  on  the  other  side;  finally  by 
May,  1831,  he  had  a  special  'translating  room'  of 
his  own.60 

There  was  method  in  this  concealment:  it  was  to 
keep  from  the  sight  of  his  followers  the  fixed  gaze 
and  the  blank  expression  of  the  auto-hypnotic. 
There  is  here  implicated  no  such  mystic  paradox  as 
that  Joseph  was  conscious  of  his  unconsciousness; 

67 « Book  of  Commandments/  Chapter  30 :  '  Take  thy  brother 
Hiram  Page  between  him  and  thee  alone,  and  tell  him  that  those 
things  which  he  hath  written  from  that  stone  are  not  of  me,  and 
that  satan  deceiveth  him :  For  behold  these  things  have  not  been 
appointed  unto  him,  Neither  shall  anything  be  appointed  to  any  of 
this  church.'  Compare  'Times  and  Seasons,'  4,  117-119;  also 
•  History  of  the  Church,'  p.  123. 

«>Whitmer,  p.  32:— 'After  the  translation  of  the  "Book  of 
Mormon  "  was  finished,  early  in  the  spring  of  1830,  before  April  6th, 
Joseph  gave  the  stone  to  Oliver  Cowdery  and  told  me  as  well  as 
the  rest  that  he  was  through  with  it,  and  he  did  not  use  the  stone 
any  more.  He  said  he  was  through  the  work  that  God  had  given 
him  the  gift  to  perform,  except  to  preach  the  gospel.  He  told  us 
that  we  would  all  have  to  depend  on  the  Holy  Ghost  hereafter  to 
be  guided  into  truth  and  obtain  the  will  of  the  Lord.  The  reve 
lations  after  this  came  through  Joseph  as  "  mouthpiece  " ;  that  is, 
he  would  enquire  of  the  Lord,  pray  and  ask  concerning  a  matter, 
and  speak  out  the  revelation.' 

•»  Whitmer,  p.  10. 

eo '  Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  784. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  203 

if,  at  the  time,  the  trance-medium  does  not  know 
what  he  has  spoken,  he  yet  knows  that  he  has 
spoken.  The  light  hypnosis  is  not  characterized  by 
entire  loss  of  memory.  That  the  prophet,  as  early 
as  1831,  was  cognizant  of  the  abnormality  of  the 
ecstatic  condition,  is  borne  out  by  his  disrelish  for 
such  excesses  as  those  of  the  Kirtland  convulsion- 
ists,  their  '  wallowing  on  the  ground,  their  diabolical 
acts  of  enthusiasm.'  Exactly  when  the  personal 
discovery  was  made  is  a  matter  of  opinion.  It  may 
have  been  with  the  failure,  in  October,  1825,  to  find 
the  fabulous  silver  mine  of  his  father-in-law.  It  was 
in  October,  1825,  he  relates,  that  he  '  prevailed  upon 
the  old  gentleman  to  cease  digging  after  it.' 61 

61 '  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  100.  Compare  Blackman,  «  History 
of  Susquehanna  County,  Pa.,'  p.  578.  (I  quote  the  following  affid 
avit  only  because  I  am  acquainted  with  this  locality  and  have 
personal  knowledge  of  the  reliability  of  Charles  Dimon.  It  should 
be  noted  that  Kale's  dates  differ  from  Smith's.)  'Statement 
of  Isaac  Hale.  Affirmed  to  and  subscribed  before  Chas.  Dimon, 
J.  P.,  March  20,  1834.  The  good  character  of  Isaac  Hale 
was  attested  to  the  following  day  by  Judges  Wm.  Thomson  and 
D.  Dimock  : — '  I  first  became  acquainted  with  Joseph  Smith,  junior, 
in  November,  1825.  He  was  at  that  time  in  the  employ  of  a  set  of 
men  who  were  called  "  money-diggers,"  and  his  occupation  was  that 
of  seeing,  or  pretending  to  see,  by  means  of  a  stone  placed  in  his  hat, 
and  his  hat  closed  over  his  face.  In  this  way  he  pretended  to  dis 
cover  minerals  and  hidden  treasure.  His  appearance  at  this  time 
was  that  of  a  careless  young  man,  not  very  well  educated,  and  very 
saucy  and  insolent  to  his  father.  Smith  and  his  father,  with  several 
other  money-diggers,  boarded  at  my  house  while  they  were  em 
ployed  in  digging  for  a  mine  that  they  supposed  had  been  opened 


204     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Subjective  'glass  looking'  was  found  to  be  no 
royal  road  to  objective  fortune;  but  disillusionment 
of  self  was  not  the  disillusionment  of  others. 
About  four  years  after  this,  Joseph  saw  fit  to 
acknowledge,  in  his  own  peculiar  way,  that  the 
power  of  self-suggestion  was  not  confined  to  him 
self.  In  April,  1829,  a  revelation  came  to  Oliver 
Cowdery:  'behold  thou  hast  a  gift,  if  thou  wilt 
inquire,  thou  shalt  know  mysteries  which  are  great 
and  marvelous.62  This  '  gift '  of  Oliver's  was  shortly 
afterwards  explained  as  a  '  key  of  knowledge  con 
cerning  the  engravings  of  old  records.'  These 
announcements  of  mutually  shared  '  gifts '  or '  keys ' 
form  one  of  the  dividing  lines  in  Joseph's  career. 
With  the  discovery  that  suggestion  was  a  rule  that 
worked  both  ways,  he  ceased  to  be  a  mere  self- 
centred  visionary,  and  became  in  truth  a  revelator  to 
others.  Once  when  his  high  priests  wished  to 

and  worked  by  the  Spaniards  many  years  since.  Young  Smith 
gave  the  money-diggers  great  encouragement  at  first,  but  when 
they  had  arrived  in  digging  too  near  the  place  where  he  had  stated 
an  immense  treasure  would  be  found,  he  said  the  enchantment  was 
so  powerful  that  he  could  not  see.  They  then  became  discouraged, 
and  soon  after  dispersed.  This  took  place  about  the  lyth  of  Novem 
ber,  1825.  .  .  .'  I  told  them,  then,  that  I  considered  the  whole 
of  it  a  delusion,  and  advised  them  to  abandon  it.  The  manner  in 
which  he  [Joseph]  pretended  to  read  and  interpret  was  the  same  as 
when  he  looked  for  the  money-diggers,  with  the  stone  in  his  hat, 
and  his  hat  over  his  face,  while  the  book  of  plates  was  at  the  same 
time  hid  in  the  woods.' 
63 '  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  5. 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  205 

behold  'concourses  of  angels/  as  president  of  the 
church,  Smith  employed  the  conventional  means  of 
inducing  the  trance  vision.  There  was  insistence 
on  faith,  fasting  and  prayer,  laying  on  of  hands, 
fixity  of  thought,  and  rigidity  of  position.63 

The  origin  of  Joseph's  functions  as  a  revelator  is, 
like  all  origins,  rudimentary  and  somewhat  obscure. 
It  was,  however,  natural  that  the  first  believers  in 
his  visualizing  powers  should  be  found  among  his 
kith  and  kin.  What  he  imagined  he  saw,  he  got 
them  to  imagine  they  saw.  As  his  mother  says  of 
him,  during  the  evening  conversations,  when  '  he 
would  describe  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  this  con 
tinent, — I  presume  our  family  presented  an  aspect  as 
singular  as  any  that  ever  lived  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth — all  seated  in  a  circle,  father,  mother,  sons, 
and  daughters,  and  giving  the  most  profound  atten 
tion  to  a  boy,  eighteen  years  of  age.'6* 

But  Joseph's  success  was  not  confined  to  a  family 
of  constitutional  visionaries;  his  sphere  of  influence 
soon  enlarged.  Because  he  asserted  he  had  seen  a 
vision,  he  was  persecuted  '  by  the  great  ones  of  the 
most  popular  sects  of  the  day,  and  was  under  the 
necessity  of  leaving  Manchester  and  going  to  Penn 
sylvania.'65  Opposition  was  what  he  needed;  he 

68 Compare  'Times  and  Seasons,' 5,  738,  the  events  of  March 
18,  1833. 

«4 « Biographical  Sketches/  p.  84. 
«6 « Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  102. 


206    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

was  advertised  by  his  enemies,  until  his  fame  as  a 
beholder  of  visions  was  as  wide  as  his  early  reputa 
tion  as  a  '  discerner  of  invisible  things.'68  Thus  the 
acts  of  the  prophet  and  seer  paved  the  way  for  the 
acts  of  the  revelator.  Of  these  latter  acts  the  most 
conspicuous  was  that  of  the  vision  beheld  by  his 
scribes.  It  is  embodied  in  this  remarkable  docu 
ment  accompanying  all  editions  of  the  Book  of 
Mormon : — 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  THREE  WITNESSES. 
Be  it  known  unto  all  nations,  kindreds, 
tongues  and  people,  unto  whom  this  work  shall 
come,  that  we,  through  the  grace  of  God  the 
Father,  and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  have  seen 
the  plates  which  contain  this  record,  which  is  a 
record  of  the  people  of  Nephi,  and  also  of  the 
Lamanites,  his  brethren,  and  also  of  the  people 
of  Jared,  which  came  from  the  tower  of  which 
hath  been  spoken  ;  and  we  also  know  that  they 
have  been  translated  by  the  gift  and  power  of 
God,  for  His  voice  hath  declared  it  unto  us ; 
wherefore  we  know  of  a  surety,  that  the  work  is 
true.  And  we  also  testify  that  we  have  seen 

€6  «  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  102 : — « The  excitement,  however, 
still  continued,  and  rumor,  with  her  thousand  tongues,  was  all  the 
time  employed  in  circulating  tales  about  my  father's  family,  and 
about  myself.  If  I  were  to  relate  a  thousandth  part  of  them,  it 
would  fill  up  volumes.  The  persecution,  however,  became  so 
intolerable  that  I  was  under  the  necessity  of  leaving  Manchester, 
and  going  with  my  wife  to  Susquehanna  County,  in  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania.' 


PROPHET,  SEER  AND  REVELATOR  207 

the  engravings  which  are  upon  the  plates ;  and 
they  have  been  shewn  unto  us  by  the  power  of 
God,  and  not  of  man.  And  we  declare  with 
words  of  soberness,  that  an  Angel  of  God  came 
down  from  heaven,  and  he  brought  and  laid 
before  our  eyes,  that  we  beheld  and  saw  the 
plates,  and  the  engravings  thereon;  and  we 
know  that  it  is  by  the  grace  of  God  the  Father, 
and  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  beheld  and 
bear  record  that  these  things  are  true ;  and  it 
is  marvelous  in  our  eyes.  Nevertheless,  the 
voice  of  the  Lord  commanded  us  that  we 
should  bear  record  of  it;  wherefore,  to  be 
obedient  unto  the  commandments  of  God,  we 
bear  testimony  of  these  things.  And  we  know 
that  if  we  are  faithful  in  Christ,  we  shall  rid 
our  garments  of  the  blood  of  all  men,  and  be 
found  spotless  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ,  and  shall  dwell  with  him  eternally  in 
the  heavens.  And  the  honor  be  to  the  Father, 
and  to  the  Son,  and  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  which 
is  one  God.  Amen. 

OLIVER  COWDERY, 
DAVID  WHITMER, 
MARTIN  HARRIS. 


CHAPTER  VII 
JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST 


CHAPTER  VII 

JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST 

THE  Testimony  of  Three  Witnesses  is  commonly 
quoted  by  writers  in  both  camps;  the  Saints  take  it 
as  proof  of  divinity, l  the  scoffers  as  proof  of 
duplicity.8  Quotation  is  one  thing,  explanation 
another.  If  it  is  used  as  psychological  material,  the 
problem  is  whether  the  vision  was  an  individual 
hallucination,  generated  normally  by  the  subject,  or 
aroused  semi-hypnotically  by  a  second  person. 

The  latter  form  of  statement  may  serve  as  a  tent 
ative  hypothesis,  but  not  before  the  former  is  ex 
amined.  According  to  some  authorities, 3  halluc 
inations  can  be  induced,  in  a  normal  state  of 
consciousness,  without  hypnosis.  As  there  are 
suggestions  in  dreams,  so  are  there  suggestions  in 
the  waking  state.  But  here,  from  the  start,  is 
manifest  the  chief  phenomenon  of  hypnosis, — 

1  Compare  '  Joseph  the  Seer.' 

9  Compare  anti-Mormon  works  beginning  with  Howe. 

3  Such  as  Moll,  whose  attempts  to  remove  hypnotism  from  the 
realm  of  the  occult  is  summed  up  in  the  statement,  p.  254,  that 
there  is  « no  new  psychical  law  to  be  found  in  hypnosis.' 

211 


212    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

namely  that  a  certain  accepted  idea  leads  to  a 
mental  delusion.  More  particularly,  it  is  ante 
cedently  probable  that  this  was  hypnotic  hallucina 
tion,  since  there  are  present  the  three  productive 
factors:  susceptibility  to  suggestion  on  the  part  of 
the  subject,  the  effect  of  expectant  attention,  and 
previous  success,  as  increasing  the  principal's  in 
fluence. 

To  apply  these  essentials:  all  three  are  found  in 
the  case  of  the  first  witness,  Oliver  Cowdery.  His 
suggestibility  is  evidenced  by  his  excitement  over 
the  story  of  the  gold  plates,  by  his  belief  that  it  was 
predetermined  that  he  should  be  Joseph's  scribe, 
and  lastly  by  his  entire  absorption  in  the  project. 
'  Shortly  after  receiving  a  sketch  of  the  facts  rela 
tive  to  the  plates,'  says  Mother  Smith,  'he  told  Mr. 
Smith  that  he  was  highly  delighted  with  what  he 
had  heard,  that  he  had  been  in  a  deep  study  upon 
the  subject  all  day,  and  that  it  was  impressed  upon 
his  mind,  that  he  should  yet  have  the  privilege  of 
writing  for  Joseph.  On  coming  in  on  the  following 
day,  he  said,  "The  subject  upon  which  we  were 
yesterday  conversing  seems  working  in  my  very 
bones,  and  I  cannot,  for  a  moment,  get  it  out  of 
my  mind;  for  I  have  made  it  a  subject  of  prayer, 
and  firmly  believe  that  it  is  the  will  of  the  Lord  that 
I  should  go."  From  this  time,  Oliver  was  so  com 
pletely  absorbed  in  the  subject  of  the  Record,  that 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  213 

it  seemed  impossible  for  him  to  think  or  converse 
about  anything  else.'* 

Cowdery's  suggestibility  was  not  merely  self-in 
duced,  the  prophet  himself  increased  that  state  of 
mind  by  a  long  and  subtle  series  of  preliminary 
suggestions.  He  was  ignorant  of  the  formula,  but 
he  knew  as  a  fact  the  effect  of  expectant  attention. 
Nothing  could  be  more  efficient  than  the  cumulative 
revelations  now  received.  In  April,  1829,  there 
came: — 

'A  Revelation  to  Oliver,  when  employed  a 
scribe  to  Joseph, — Behold  thou  hast  a  gift,  and 
blessed  art  thou  because  of  thy  gift.  Remember 
it  is  sacred  and  cometh  from  above ;  and  if  thou 
wilt  inquire,  thou  shalt  know  mysteries  which 
are  great  and  marvelous.  .  .  .  Verily, 
verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  you  desire  a  further 
witness,  cast  your  mind  upon  the  night  that  you 
cried  unto  me  in  your  heart,  that  you  might 
know  concerning  the  truth  of  these  things ;  did 
I  not  speak  peace  to  your  mind  concerning  the 
matter  ?  .  .  .  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you 
that  there  are  records  which  contain  much  of  my 
gospel.  .  .  .  And  now  behold  I  give  unto 
you,  and  also  unto  my  servant  Joseph  the  keys 
of  this  gift,  .  .  .  and  in  the  mouth  of  two 
or  three  witnesses,  shall  every  word  be  es 
tablished.'5 

4<  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  128-9. 
6 «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  5. 


214    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

How  the  master  was  gaining  ascendency  over  the 
subject  is  shown  by  what  follows.  Under  the 
mask  of  divinity,  he  now  seeks  to  inspire  him  with 
a  belief  in  the  working  of  the  divining  rod,  and  to 
direct  the  very  course  of  his  thoughts : — 

'  Now  this  is  not  all,  for  you  have  another 
gift,  which  is  the  gift  of  working  with  the  rod  : 
behold  it  has  told  you  things :  behold  there  is 
no  other  power  save  God,  that  can  cause  this 
rod  of  nature  to  work  in  your  hands,  for  it  is 
the  work  of  God ;  and  therefore  whatsoever  you 
shall  ask  me  to  tell  you  by  that  means,  that 
will  I  grant  unto  you,  that  you  shall  know.6 
.  Behold  I  say  unto  you,  my  son,  that, 
because  you  did  not  translate  according  to  that 
which  you  desired  of  me,  .  .  .  Behold  you 
have  not  understood,  you  have  supposed  that  I 
would  give  it  unto  you,  when  you  took  no 
thought,  save  it  was  to  ask  me ; 

But,  behold,  I  say  unto  you,  that  you  must 
study  it  out  in  your  mind ;  then  you  must  ask 
me  if  it  be  right,  and  if  it  is  right  I  will  cause 
that  your  bosom  shall  burn  within  you ;  there 
fore,  you  shall  feel  that  it  is  right ;  But  if  it  be 
not  right,  you  shall  have  no  such  feelings,  but 
you  shall  have  a  stupor  of  thought,  that  shall 
cause  you  to  forget  the  thing  which  is  wrong ; 
therefore  you  cannot  write  that  which  is  sacred, 
save  it  be  given  you  from  me. ' 7 


•'  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  7. 
7 'Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  8. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  215 

In  the  meanwhile  the  subject  did  not  realize  the 
degree  of  his  psychic  plasticity;  this  is  clear  from 
his  own  statement.  In  the  first  of  the  Letters  of 
Oliver  Cowdery  occurs  this  passage:— 'Near  the 
time  of  the  setting  of  the  sun,  Sabbath  evening, 
April  5th,  1829,  my  natural  eyes,  for  the  first  time 
beheld  this  brother.  He  then  resided  in  Harmony, 
Susquehanna  County,  Pennsylvania.  On  Monday, 
the  6th,  I  assisted  him  in  arranging  some  business 
of  a  temporal  nature,  and  on  Tuesday,  the  7th,  com 
menced  to  write  the  Book  of  Mormon.  These  were 
days  never  to  be  forgotten — to  sit  under  the  sound  of 
a  voice  dictated  by  the  inspiration  of  heaven,  awa 
kened  the  utmost  gratitude  of  this  bosom.  Day 
after  day  I  continued,  uninterruptedly  to  write  from 
his  mouth,  as  he  translated,  with  the  Urim  and 
Thummim,  or  as  the  Nephites  would  have  said, 
"Interpreters,"  the  history,  or  record,  called  the 
Book  of  Mormon.' 

The  preparatory  manipulation  of  the  first  witness 
was  not  yet  completed.  The  longest  revelation  to 
Oliver  opens  with  the  words, — '  A  great  and  a  mar 
velous  work  is  about  to  come  forth  unto  the  children 
of  men.' 8  This  was  the  prophet's  scriptural  formu 
lation  of  the  actual  principle  of  expectant  attention. 
In  the  same  way,  he  had  a  practical,  though  not  a 
technical  cognizance  of  the  third  factor  in  the  pro- 

« «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  5. 


216     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

duction  of  hypnosis.  His  previous  success,  as  in 
creasing  his  personal  influence,  is  manifest  from 
the  following  episode.  Of  the  two  accounts,  the 
matter-of-fact  assumptions  of  the  seer  may 
be  well  compared  with  the  rhapsody  of  his  fol 
lower: — 

'  We  still  continued  the  work  of  translation,  when,  in  the 
ensuing  month,  (May,  1829),  we  on  a  certain  day  went 
into  the  woods  to  pray  and  inquire  of  the  Lord  respect 
ing  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins,  as  we  found  men 
tioned  in  the  translation  of  the  plates.  While  we  were 
thus  employed,  praying  and  calling  upon  the  Lord,  a 
messenger  from  heaven  descended  in  a  cloud  of  light, 
and  having  laid  his  hands  upon  us,  he  ordained  us, 
saying  unto  us,  '  Upon  you,  my  fellow  servants,  in  the 
name  of  Messiah,  I  confer  the  Priesthood  of  Aaron, 
which  holds  the  keys  of  the  ministering  of  angels,  and  of 
the  gospel  of  repentance,  and  of  baptism  by  immersion 
for  the  remission  of  sins  ;  and  this  shall  never  be  taken 
again  from  the  earth,  until  the  sons  of  Levi  do  offer 
again  an  offering  unto  the  Lor  din  righteousness.'  He 
said  this  Aaronic  Priesthood  had  not  the  power  of  laying 
on  of  hands  for  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  but  that  this 
should  be  conferred  on  us  hereafter ;  and  he  commanded 
us  to  go  and  be  baptized,  and  gave  us  directions  that  I 
should  baptize  Oliver  Cowdery,  and  afterwards  that  he 
should  baptize  me. 

Accordingly  we  went  and  were  baptized — I  baptized 
him  first,  and  afterwards  he  baptized  me — after  which  I 
laid  my  hands  upon  his  head  and  ordained  him  to  the 
Aaronic  Priesthood,  and  afterwards  he  laid  his  hands  on 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  217 

me  and  ordained  me  to  the  same  Priesthood — for  so  we 
were  commanded.' 9 


'  This  was  not  long  desired  before  it  was  realized.  The 
Lord,  who  is  rich  in  mercy,  and  ever  willing  to  answer 
the  consistent  prayer  of  the  humble,  after  we  had  called 
upon  Him  in  a  fervent  manner,  aside  from  the  abodes  of 
men,  condescended  to  manifest  to  us  His  will.  On  a 
sudden,  as  from  the  midst  of  eternity,  the  voice  of  the 
Redeemer  spake  peace  to  us,  while  the  vail  was  parted 
and  the  angel  of  God  came  down  clothed  with  glory,  and 
delivered  the  anxiously  looked  for  message,  and  the  keys 
of  the  gospel  of  repentance  !  What  joy  !  What  wonder  ! 
What  amazement !  While  the  world  was  racked  and 
distracted — while  the  millions  were  groping  as  the  blind 
for  the  wall,  and  while  all  men  were  resting  upon  uncer 
tainty,  as  a  general  mass,  our  eyes  beheld — our  ears 
heard.  As  in  the  '  blaze  of  day';  yes,  more — above  the 
glitter  of  the  May  sunbeam,  which  then  shed  its  brilliancy 
over  the  face  of  nature !  Then  his  voice,  though  mild, 
pierced  to  the  centre,  and  his  words,  '  I  am  thy  fellow 
servant,'  dispelled  every  fear.  We  listened — we  gazed — 
we  admired  !  'Twas  the  voice  of  the  angel  from  glory — 
'twas  a  message  from  the  Most  High  !  and  as  we  heard 
we  rejoiced,  while  His  love  enkindled  upon  our  souls,  and 
we  were  wrapt  in  the  vision  of  the  Almighty  1  Where 
was  room  for  doubt?  Nowhere:  uncertainty  had  fled, 
doubt  had  sunk,  no  more  to  rise,  while  fiction  and  decep 
tion  had  fled  forever  ! ' 10 


0  <  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  pp.  105-6. 
10  <  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  pp.  105-108. 


2i8     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Up  to  his  dying  day,  Cowdery  believed  there 
was  no  *  fiction  and  deception '  either  in  this 
manifestation,  or  in  the  plate  vision.11  This  fact 
has  a  twofold  significance:  the  persistance  of  his 
belief  shows  the  vividness  of  the  original  hallucina 
tion,  but  the  conviction  of  reality  points  to  hypnosis 
— in  which  there  is  '  an  apparently  logical  connection 
between  the  suggested  idea  and  the  hypnotic  sub 
ject's  own  thoughts.' ia  The  final  testimony  of  the 
second  witness  is  equally  illuminating,  both  as  to 
the  seeming  external  projection  of  the  sensible 
image,  and  the  condition  of  mind  in  which  the 
subject  sees  but  does  not  reason.  In  an  interview, 
September,  1878,  David  Whitmer  said: — 

'  It  was  in  June,  1829,  the  latter  part  of  the  month,  and 
the  eight  witnesses  saw  them,  I  think,  a  day  or  two 
after  we  did.  Joseph  himself  showed  the  plates  to  the 
eight  witnesses,  but  the  angel  showed  them  to  us,  the 
three  witnesses.  Martin  Harris  was  not  with  us  this 
(the  first)  time,  but  he  obtained  a  view  of  them  after 
wards  the  same  day.  We  not  only  saw  the  plates  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  but  also  the  brass  plates,  and  the 
plates  of  the  Book  of  Ether,  and  the  plates  containing 
the  records  of  the  wickedness  and  secret  combinations  of 
the  world  down  to  the  time  of  their  being  engraved,  and 

11  Whitmer,  'Address,'  p.  8,  says:  'On  March  3,  1850,  I  was 
present  at  the  deathbed  of  Oliver  Cowdery,  and  his  last  words  were, 
"Brother   David,   be   true   to   your  testimony   of  the   'Book  of 
Mormon.' " ' 

12  Moll,  p.  214. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  219 

also  many  other  plates.  We  were  overshadowed  by  a 
light,  one  not  like  the  light  of  the  sun  or  of  a  fire,  but 
one  more  glorious  and  beautiful.  It  extended  away 
around  us,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  light  there  appeared, 
as  it  were,  a  table,  with  many  plates  or  records  upon  it 
besides  the  plates  of  the  Book  of  Mormon;  also  the 
sword  of  Laban,  and  the  directors  (that  is  the  ball  which 
Lehi  had),  and  the  interpreter.  I  saw  them  just  as 
plainly  as  I  see  this  bed  (striking  with  his  hand  the  bed 
by  which  he  sat),  and  I  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  as 
distinctly  as  I  ever  heard  anything  in  my  life,  declaring 
that  the  records  of  the  plates  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
were  translated  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God.' I8 

Whitmer's  entire  faith  in  the  reality  of  the  vision 
of  the  plates  is  perpetuated  by  the  inscription  on  his 
tomb.14  His  grandson  supplies  further  information, 
and,  what  is  more,  suggests  hypnotism  as  a 


13 « Joseph  the  Seer,1  pp.  56-7.  Compare  Richmond,  Missouri, 
Democrat,  February  2,  1881 : — Just  before  his  death,  Whitmer  is 
said  to  have  called  the  family  and  his  doctor  to  his  bedside  and  to 
have  exclaimed,  '  Dr.  Buchanan,  I  want  you  to  say  whether  or  not 
I  am  in  my  right  mind,  before  giving  my  dying  testimony.'  The 
doctor  answered, « Yes,  you  are  in  your  right  mind.'  Then  .  .  . 
the  old  man :  « I  want  to  say  to  you  all,  the  Bible  and  the  record 
of  the  Nephites,  is  true.1 

14 « The  Record  of  the  Jews  and  the  Record  of  the  Nephites 
are  one.  Truth  is  eternal '  (Schweich,  April  6,  1899). 

15  George  W.  Schweich,  Richmond,  Missouri,  wrote  September 
22d,  1899, '  I  have  begged  him  to  unfold  the  fraud  in  the  case  and 
he  had  all  to  gain  and  nothing  to  lose  to  but  speak  the  word  if  he 
thought  so — but  he  has  described  the  scene  to  me  many  times,  of 


220    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Of  the  credulity  of  the  last  of  the  three  witnesses 
an  instance  has  already  been  given:  it  was  Martin 
Harris  '  a  farmer  of  respectability '  who  had  already 
lent  money  to  Joseph  18  and  had  taken  the  transcrip 
tion  or  '  Caractors '  to  New  York  City.  In  a  letter 
written  by  him  in  1870,  he  said: — 'No  man  ever 
heard  me  in  any  way  deny  either  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon,  or  the  administration  of  the  angel  that  showed 
me  the  plates,  or  the  organization  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  under  the  ad 
ministration  of  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  the  prophet, 
whom  the  Lord  raised  up  for  that  purpose  in  these 
later  days,  that  He  might  show  forth  His  power  and 
glory.  The  Lord  has  shown  me  these  things  by 
His  Spirit,  and  by  the  administration  of  angels,  and 
confirmed  the  same  with  signs  following  for  the 
space  of  forty  years.  I  do  say  that  the  angel  did 
show  me  the  plates  containing  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
and  further  that  the  translation  that  I  carried  to 
Professor  Anthon  was  copied  from  the  plates.' 17 

The  case  of  Harris  presented  greater  difficulties 
than  that  of  the  other  two.  His  financial  dealings 
with  Smith;  his  loss  of  the  one  hundred  and  sixteen 

his  vision  about  noon  time  in  an  open  pasture — there  is  only  one 
explanation  barring  an  actual  miracle  and  that  is  this — If  that 
vision  was  not  real  it  was  HYPNOTISM,  it  was  real  to  grandfather  IN 

FACT.' 

*« '  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  102. 
17 « Joseph  the  Seer/  pp.  57-8. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  221 

pages  of  manuscript,  and  the  revelation  imply 
ing  that  he  was  in  league  with  the  devil, — made 
him,  for  the  time  being,  less  susceptible  to  the 
revelators'  influence.  Yet  Harris  was  by  nature  a 
good  subject;  he  had  always  been  a  firm  believer  in 
dreams,  visions,  and  supernatural  appearances,  such 
as  apparitions  and  ghosts.18  Five  years  before  his 
death,  an  attack  of  vertigo  was  interpreted  by  him 
as  'a  snare  of  the  adversary  to  hinder  him  from 
going  to  Salt  Lake  City.' 19 

With  all  this  in  view,  it  is  interesting  to  watch 
how  Smith  approached  one  whose  constitutional 
susceptibility  was  biased  by  a  personal  grudge. 
Three  months  before  the  vision  took  place  there 
was  '  A  Revelation  given  to  Joseph  and  Martin,  in 
Harmony,  Pennsylvania,  when  Martin  desired  of 
the  Lord  to  know  whether  Joseph  had,  in  his  pos 
session,  the  record  of  the  Nephites.' 20  Not  long 

18  Clark,  <  Gleanings,'  p.  223. 

19  Deseret  Evening  News,  December   13,  1881.     Interview  of 
Edward  Stevenson  with  One  of  the  Three  Witnesses. — « A  very 
singular  incident  occurred  at  this  time.     While  Martin  was  visit 
ing  his  friends     .     .     .     his  pathway  crossed  a  large  pasture,  in 
which  he  became  bewildered,  dizzy,  faint,  and  staggering  through 
the   blackberry  vines,  his  clothes  torn,  bloody  and  faint,  he  lay 
down  under  a  tree  to  die.     After  a  time  he  revived,  called  on  the 
Lord,  and   finally  at  twelve  midnight,  found  his  friend.     .     .     . 
He  related  this  incident  as  a  snare  of  the  adversary  to  hinder  him 
from  going  to  Salt  Lake  City.' 

20 «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  4. 


222     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

after  this  occurred  the  loss  of  the  manuscript, 
and  the  consequent  rupture  between  the  translator 
and  his  first  scribe.  But  with  the  completion  of  the 
translation  there  came  reconciliation  and  renewed 
expectancy.  '  As  soon  as  the  Book  of  Mormon  was 
translated,'  narrates  Mrs.  Smith,  '  we  conveyed  this 
intelligence  to  Martin  Harris,  for  we  loved  the  man, 
although  his  weakness  had  cost  us  much  trouble. 
Hearing  this,  he  greatly  rejoiced,  and  determined  to 
go  straightway  to  Waterloo  to  congratulate  Joseph 
upon  his  success.  .  .  .  The  next  morning, 
after  attending  to  the  usual  services,  namely,  read 
ing,  singing,  and  praying,  Joseph  arose  from  his 
knees,  and  approaching  Martin  Harris  with  a 
solemnity  that  thrills  through  my  veins  to  this 
day,  when  it  occurs  to  my  recollection,  said, 
"  Martin  Harris,  you  have  got  to  humble  yourself 
before  your  God  this  day,  that  you  may  obtain  a 
forgiveness  of  your  sins.  If  you  do,  it  is  the  will 
of  God  that  you  should  look  upon  the  plates, 
in  company  with  Oliver  Cowdery  and  David 
Whitmer.'"81 

But  with  Martin  the  '  eye  of  faith '  had  not  yet 
taken  the  place  of  the  natural  vision.  As  Whitmer 
says,  'Martin  Harris  was  not  with  us  this  (first) 
time,  but  he  obtained  a  view  of  them  [the  plates] 
afterwards,  the  same  day.'23  It  was  the  going 

21 '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  138.        22  'Joseph  the  Seer,'  p.56. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  223 

aside  and  praying  over  the  third  witness  that 
delayed  the  return  to  the  house  until  between 
three  and  four  in  the  afternoon.  Joseph  then  gave 
vent  to  his  joy,  saying,  '  Father,  mother,  you  do  not 
know  how  happy  I  am;  the  Lord  has  now  caused 
the  plates  to  be  shown  to  three  more  besides  my 
self.'  '  Upon  this/  adds  Lucy,  '  Martin  Harris  came 
in:  he  seemed  almost  overcome  with  joy,  and 
testified  boldly  to  what  he  had  both  seen  and  heard. 
And  so  did  David  and  Oliver,  adding,  that  no 
tongue  could  express  the  joy  of  their  hearts,  and  the 
greatness  of  the  things  which  they  had  both  seen 
and  heard.' 23 

The  final  details  of  the  transaction  are  obtained 
from  the  account  of  the  chief  actor.  Joseph  says  in 
his  History  of  the  Church :  — 

*  Not  many  days  after  the  above  command 
ment  was  given,  we  four,  viz.,  Martin  Harris, 
David  Whitmer,  Oliver  Cowdery,  and  myself, 
agreed  to  retire  into  the  woods,  and  try  to  ob 
tain,  by  fervent  and  humble  prayer,  the  fulfil 
ment  of  the  promise  given  in  the  revelation — 
that  they  should  have  a  view  of  the  plates,  etc. 
We  accordingly  made  choice  of  a  piece  of 

23  '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  139.  For  Harris'  persistent  belief 
compare  Knight,  p.  1 1  : — «  Martin  Harris  on  his  deathbed  bore  his 
testimony  to  the  truth  and  divinity  of  the  '  Book  of  Mormon,'  a 
short  time  before  he  departed,  and  the  last  word  he  uttered  when 
he  could  not  speak  the  sentence,  was,  •«  Book  !  Book  !  Book  !  " ' 


224    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

woods  convenient  to  Mr.  Whitmer's  house,  to 
which  we  retired,  and  having  knelt  down,  we 
began  to  pray  in  much  faith  to  Almighty  God 
to  bestow  upon  us  a  realization  of  these  prom 
ises.  According  to  previous  arrangements  I 
commenced  by  vocal  prayer  to  our  heavenly 
Father,  and  was  followed  by  each  of  the  rest  in 
succession.  We  did  not,  however,  obtain  any 
answer  or  manifestation  of  the  divine  favor  in 
our  behalf.  We  again  observed  the  same  order 
of  prayer,  each  calling  on  and  praying  fervently 
to  God  in  rotation,  but  with  the  same  result  as 
before.  Upon  this,  our  second  failure,  Martin 
Harris  proposed  that  he  should  withdraw  him 
self  from  us,  believing,  as  he  expressed  himself, 
that  his  presence  was  the  cause  of  our  not  ob 
taining  what  we  wished  for;  he  accordingly 
withdrew  from  us,  and  we  knelt  down  again, 
and  had  not  been  many  minutes  engaged  in 
prayer,  when  presently  we  beheld  a  light  above 
us  in  the  air,  of  exceeding  brightness :  and  be 
hold,  an  angel  stood  before  us ;  in  his  hands  he 
held  the  plates  which  we  had  been  praying  for 
these  to  have  a  view  of;  he  turned  over  the 
leaves  one  by  one,  so  that  we  could  see  them, 
and  discover  the  engravings  thereon  distinctly. 
He  then  addressed  himself  to  David  Whitmer, 
and  said,  "David,  blessed  is  the  Lord  and  he 
that  keeps  His  commandments."  When,  imme 
diately  afterwards,  we  heard  a  voice  from  out 
of  the  bright  light  above  us,  saying,  "These 
plates  have  been  revealed  by  the  power  of  God, 
and  they  have  been  translated  by  the  power  of 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  225 

God.  The  translation  of  them  which  you 
have  seen  is  correct  and  I  command  you  to 
bear  record  of  what  you  now  see  and  hear."  I 
now  left  David  and  Oliver,  and  went  in  pursuit 
of  Martin  Harris,  whom  I  found  at  a  consider 
able  distance,  fervently  engaged  in  prayer.  He 
soon  told  me,  however,  that  he  had  not  yet 
prevailed  with  the  Lord,  and  earnestly  requested 
me  to  join  him  in  prayer,  that  he  also  might 
realize  the  same  blessings  which  we  had  just  re 
ceived.  We  accordingly  joined  in  prayer,  and 
ultimately  obtained  our  desires,  for,  before  we 
had  yet  finished,  the  same  vision  was  open  to 
our  view,  at  least  it  was  again  to  me,  and  I  once 
more  beheld  and  heard  the  same  things,  whilst 
at  the  same  moment  Martin  Harris  cried  out, 
apparently  in  ecstasy  of  joy,  "  'Tis  enough; 
mine  eyes  have  beheld,"  and  jumping  up,  he 
shouted  "  Hosannah,"  blessing  God,  and  other 
wise  rejoiced  exceedingly.'  M 

Beneath  these  cryptic  accounts,  with  their  legend 
ary  accretions,  it  remains  to  discover  the  psycho 
logy  of  the  Saints;  to  find  to  what  degree  the  mani- 

84  Compare  interview  with  David  Whitmer  in  Kingston,  Mis 
souri,  Times,  December  27,  1887  : — [The  plates]  «  were  shown  to 
us  in  this  way — Joseph,  Oliver  and  I  were  sitting  on  a  log,  when 
we  were  overshadowed  by  a  light  more  glorious  than  that  of  the 
sun.  In  the  midst  of  this  light,  but  a  few  feet  from  us,  ap 
peared  a  table,  upon  which  were  many  golden  plates.  ...  I 
saw  them  as  plain  as  I  see  you  now,  and  distinctly  heard  the  voice 
of  the  Lord  declaiming  that  the  records  of  the  plates  of  the  "  Book 
of  Mormon  "  were  translated  by  the  gift  and  the  power  of  God.' 


226    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

festations  are  explicable  on  the  grounds  of  sub 
jective  hallucination,  induced  by  hypnotic  suggest 
ion.  A  closer  scrutiny  of  the  evidence  will  show 
how  nearly  it  fills  the  various  conditions  demanded. 
But  before  that  is  undertaken,  various  traditions  must 
be  cleared  away,  especially  certain  occult  assump 
tions  and  explanations  of  a  generation  ago.  It  was 
claimed  of  Smith  that  he  possessed  a  '  fascination  of 
glance,'  and  that  he  was  'a  magnet  in  a  large 
way.'25  Brigham  Young  asserted  the  former,  the 
electro-biologists  the  latter.  The  various  upholders 
of  these  emanation  theories  ignored  the  fact  that  as 
spiritual  head  of  his  church,  the  prophet  had  untold 
influence  over  the  bodies  and  souls  of  his  devotees. 
Given  then,  such  an  influence,  and  sensitive  sub 
jects,  and  mental  suggestion  could  produce  any 
thing  in  the  way  of  illusion.  Thus  the  explanation 
is  subjective,  not  objective;  it  was  captivation  but 
not  fascination;  there  was  leader  and  led,  and  the 
former  succeeded  in  inducing  in  the  latter  all  the 
phantasmagoria  of  religious  ardor.  In  the  Kirtland 
frenzy  and  the  Nauvoo  excitement,  the  Saints  had 
illusive  images  ranging  from  bears  and  wolves  and 
scalping  Indians,  to  concourses  of  angels  and  the 
New  Jerusalem. 

Again,  the  vision  of  the  plates  may  be  related  in  a 
larger  way  with  what  has  gone  before.     Of  the 

«  New  York  Herald,  May  2,  1842. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  227 

three  classes  of  hallucinations  two  have  already 
been  explicated.  Joseph's  father  had  the  ordinary 
hallucination  of  dream;  his  grandfather  that  which 
persists  into  the  waking  state.  The  vision  of  the 
three  witnesses  is  that  form  of  hallucination  which 
may  occur  either  in  the  normal  state,  or  be  induced 
in  the  state  of  light  hypnosis.  The  former  is  ex 
emplified  in  day-dreams;  it  is  largely  self-induced 
and  implies  some  capacity  for  visualizing.  The 
latter  may  also  occur  with  the  eyes  open,  but  it  is 
induced  by  the  positive  suggestion  of  another. 

But  integrally  connected  with  all  this  is  the  ques 
tion  whether,  in  the  vision  of  the  Records,  the 
three  subjects  were  conscious  of  an  extra-mental 
impulse.  Whitmer  was  once  asked  if  he  was  in 
his  usual  condition  of  consciousness  while  he  be 
held  the  plates,  and  if  he  was  sensible  of  surround 
ing  objects.  He  refused  to  answer  the  inquiry. n 
This  silence  might  connote  a  deep  state  of  hypnosis, 
in  which  the  subject  is  not  aware  that  he  has  been 
hypnotized.  But  the  loss  of  memory  of  the  initial 
impulse  is  not  the  same  as  forgetfulness  of  the  hal 
lucination,  as  such.  Amnesia  does  not  occur  in  the 
light  stages,  nor  need  there  be  abnormality  of  mem 
ory  in  its  three  functions  of  retention,  reproduction, 
and  recognition  of  its  ideas. 

If  the  substantial  agreement  between  the  earliest 

96  Stenhouse,  p.  29. 


228    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

and  latest  testimonies  of  the  witnesses  meets  the 
requirements  of  psychological  reproduction,  so  does 
the  original  form  of  the  hallucination.  Association 
of  ideas  plays  its  leading  part.  As  the  hypnotized 
soldier  will  hear  the  voice  of  his  old  commander,  or 
the  devout  French  peasant  see  his  patron  Saint,  so 
was  it  in  these  manifestations.  The  ideas  and  inter 
ests  which  were  uppermost  in  the  mind  were  pro 
jected  outwards.  Harris  had  received  the  first 
'transcription  of  the  gold  plates';  Whitmer  had 
been  saturated  with  notions  of  ancient  engravings ; 
Cowdery,  for  weeks  at  a  time,  had  listened  to  the 
sound  of  a  voice  translating  the  record  of  the 
Nephites.  When  that  voice  was  again  heard  in  the 
grove,  when  the  four  sought  '  by  fervent  and  hum 
ble  prayer  to  have  a  view  of  the  plates/  there  is 
little  wonder  that  there  arose  a  psychic  mirage, 
complete  in  every  detail.  Furthermore,  the  rotation 
in  praying,  the  failure  of  the  first  two  attempts,  the 
repeated  workings  of  the  prophet  over  the  doubting 
Harris,  but  serve  to  bring  out  the  additional  in 
centives  to  the  hypnotic  hallucination.  Repetition, 
steady  attention,  absence  of  mistrust,  self-surrender 
to  the  will  of  the  principal, — all  the  requisites  are 
present,  not  as  formulae  but  as  facts.  The  varia 
tions  in  method  were  many,  the  results  were 
one. 
In  a  few  days  there  followed  the  episode  of  the 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  229 

eight  witnesses.27  In  their  testimony,  they  claimed 
not  only  to  have  seen  the  plates,  but  to  have 
handled  and  '  hefted '  them.  The  bucolic  phrases, 
properly  interpreted,  suggest  both  visual  and  tactual 
sense  illusions.  But  other  explanations  should  be 
glanced  at  before  the  psychological  explanation  is 
attempted.  To  peer  into  the  wilderness  of  guesses 
is  a  waste  of  time,  unless  it  shows  the  characteristic 
tendency  to  believe  things  without  logical  proof. 
Thus  the  credulity  of  the  Mormons  is  evidenced  by 
their  irritation  at  the  various  surmises  of  the  pro 
fane, — from  the  no-plate  theory  repudiated  by 
Mother  Smith,28  to  the  '  yellow-tin-plate-ventriloquist 

21 '  AND  ALSO  THE  TESTIMONY  OF  EIGHT  WITNESSES. 
Be  it  known  unto  all  nations,  kindreds,  tongues,  and  people,  unto 
whom  this  work  shall  come,  that  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  the  Author 
and  Proprietor  of  this  work,  has  shown  unto  us  the  plates  of  which 
hath  been  spoken,  which  have  the  appearance  of  gold ;  and  as 
many  of  the  leaves  as  the  said  Smith  hath  translated,  we  did 
handle  with  our  hands :  and  we  also  saw  the  engravings  thereon, 
all  of  which  has  the  appearance  of  ancient  work,  and  curious 
workmanship.  And  this  we  bear  record  with  words  of  soberness, 
that  the  said  Smith  has  shown  unto  us,  for  we  have  seen  and 
hefted,  and  known  of  a  surety,  that  the  said  Smith  has  got  the 
plates  of  which  we  have  spoken.  And  we  give  our  names  unto 
the  world,  to  witness  unto  the  world  that  which  we  have  seen:  and 
we  lie  not,  God  bearing  witness  of  it. 

CHRISTIAN  WHITMER,  HIRAM  PAGE, 

JACOB  WHITMER,  JOSEPH  SMITH,  SEN., 

PETER  WHITMER,  JR.,  HYRUM  SMITH, 

JOHN  WHITMER,  SAMUEL  H.  SMITH.' 

28  In   the   legal  prosecution  against  Joseph   in  Lyons,   N.   Y., 
one  witness  'declared    that   he  once  inquired  of  Joseph  Smith 


230    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

theory'  derided  by  the  reorganized  Saints.29  To 
finish  the  matter:  there  is  a  choice  between  two 
things.  The  Testimony  of  the  Eight  Witnesses  is  a 
pure  fabrication.  It  is  a  document  due  to  the  affi 
davit  habit.  Like  the  slanderous  manifestoes 
against  the  Smiths,  this  has  the  suspicious  uni 
formity  of  a  patent  medicine  testimonial. 

The  other  alternative  is  that  the  Testimony  of  the 
Eight  is  a  record  of  collective  hypnotization.  In 
form  it  might  be  either  an  hallucination  or  an  illusion, 
— the  perception  of  an  object  where  in  reality  there  is 
nothing,  or  the  false  interpretation  of  some  existing 
external  object.30  The  possibility  of  collective  hyp 
nosis  is  shown  by  the  numerous  historic  instances 
of  contagious  psychic  epidemics,  arising  from  re 
ligious  fervor  and  an  overstimulated  imagination.31 
Even  in  modern  time  these  have  ranged  from  the 
more  orderly  visionary  occurrences  at  Lourdes,  to 
the  Swedish  'preaching  disease,'  and  its  attendant 
hallucinatory  mania.  Whatever  the  phase,  the 
eight  witnesses  formed  a  close  psychic  corporation, 
consisting  of  two  family  parties  and  one  outsider. 

what  he  had  in  that  box,  and  Joseph  Smith  told  him  that  there  was 
nothing  at  all  in  the  box,  saying  that  he  had  made  fools  of  the 
whole  of  them,   and  all  he   wanted  was,   to  get  Martin  Harris' 
money  away  from  him.1 — 'Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  134. 
29 'Joseph  the  Seer,'  p.  105. 

80  For  examples  compare  Moll,  p.  106. 

81  Compare  Bernheim,  pp.  13,  14;  De  Boismont,  p.  238. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  231 

Although  little  is  known  of  these  Whitmers,  and 
nothing  of  Page,  it  is  certain  that  the  abnormal  re 
ligious  influences  of  the  times  had  rendered  them 
more  or  less  susceptible  to  suggestion.  Given 
Joseph  Smith,  senior,  as  a  nucleus  of  credulity, 
there  may  easily  have  happened  here  what  happens 
under  modern  experimental  methods  of  hypnosis, 
—when  persons  endowed  with  a  vivid  power  of 
representation  are  gathered  together,  '  by  exchang 
ing  confidences,  or  by  imparting  their  respective 
impressions,  they  reciprocally  hallucinate  each 
other.'32 

Smith's  achievements  as  prophet,  seer,  and  revel- 
ator  have  been  explained  on  the  basis  of  auto-hyp 
nosis  and  hypnotic  suggestion.  The  use  of  such 
terms  is  of  course  proleptic.  A  difficult  problem 
now  arises:  What  historic  connection,  if  any,  was 
there  between  the  founder  of  Mormonism  and  those 
movements  of  his  day  which  formed  the  antecedents 
of  hypnotism?33  Did  he  borrow  from  Sweden- 
borgianism,  Animal  Magnetism,  Spiritualism  and 
other  pseudo-scientific  cults  which  swept  over  the 
country  ?  To  anticipate, — the  answer  is  negative. 
At  the  founding  of  the  church,  these  movements 
were  as  yet  below  the  horizon  of  the  prophet, 

32  Binet  and  Fere,  p.  222. 

33  Compare  Joseph  Jastrow,  '  Fact  and  Fable  in  Psychology,' 
Boston,  1900,  pp.  171-235. 


232     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

while  his  most  mature  theories  were  simple  in  the 
extreme.  The  true  explanation  must  be  connected 
with  both  ancestry  and  environment.  As  his  pro 
genitors  took  a  prehistoric  view  of  dreams,  and  his 
followers  held  to  the  savage's  animistic  conception 
of  evil  spirits,  so  Joseph's  mental  habit  was  most 
primitive.  With  him  hypnosis  was  of  the  time- 
worn  sort,  the  kind  which  was  to  be  found  in  the 
witchcraft  at  Endor  and  the  priestcraft  at  Ephesus. 
Incidentally  if  any  paganism  is  to  be  found  in 
Mormonism,  it  lies  in  this  continuity  of  heathen 
thought,  on  the  occult  side.  As  for  Smith  himself, 
his  case  was  sporadic,  his  achievements  empirical, 
and  his  abnormal  performances  a  resultant  of  a  faith 
tinged  with  superstition.  To  his  overwrought 
imagination,  these  appeared  true  apostolic  gifts, — 
trances,  speaking  with  tongues,  anointing  with  holy 
oil,  and  healing  by  prayer. s* 

To  bring  the  latter-day  problem  to  a  head:  the 
historic  points  of  attachment  may  be  largely  re 
solved  into  questions  of  place  and  time.  This  was 
an  occult  locality.  Rochester,  known  as  the  '  Boston 
of  the  West,'  was  confessedly  a  '  hotbed  of  isms.'35 
Canandaigua,  about  ten  miles  from  Joseph's  home, 
was  the  early  stamping  ground  of  the  Fox  sisters, S6 

'*  Compare  Parley  P.  Pratt,  '  Persecutions,'  Chapter  v. 

35  Parke,  *  Rochester,'  p.  267. 

36  Compare  •  Report   of  the   Mysterious   Noises  at  Hydesville, 
Canandaigua,  April,  1848.' 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  233 

and  the  starting  point  of  spiritualism  proper.  Along 
the  Erie  canal  there  had  already  spread  an  American 
variety  of  Mesmerism.  The  place  was  likely,  but 
not  the  time.  The  spirit  rappings  did  not  begin 
until  April,  1848;  nor  electro-magnetism  until  the 
first  workings  of  the  electric  telegraph  in  1844. 

But  to  take  up  the  various  alternate  explanations 
in  detail.  There  was  the  supposition  that  Joseph 
Smith,  like  Swedenborg,  was  a  seer-nature.37  The 
suggested  connection  is  not  impossible.  There  was 
a  convention  of  the  American  New  Church,  at  Phil 
adelphia  in  1817. S8  Already  a  regularly  ordained 
Swedenborgian  missionary  had  traveled  to  the 
Western  Reserve. 39  In  the  early  thirties  a  volume 
of  Swedenborg  was  in  the  possession  of  a  Mormon 
convert.  *°  Lastly,  in  the  forties  Smith  himself,  as 
an  expert  in  sectarianism,  was  doubtless  cognizant 
of  the  New  Jerusalem  Church;  his  Revelation  on 

37 '  American  Phrenological  Journal,'  November,  1866,  p.  146: 
— Joseph  like  Swedenborg  was  a  seer  nature.  It  is  more  logical 
to  believe  him  to  have  been  an  earnest  religious  leader,  than  to 
have  been  a  non-believer  in  his  own  mission.  Men  never  accom 
plish  much  when  they  have  not  unbounded  faith  in  themselves 
and  their  call.  .  .  .  The  fact  that  the  astute  mind  of  Brigham 
Young  and  those  of  many  other  remarkable  and  talented  men, 
were  fascinated  by  Joseph  Smith  is  suggestive.  .  .  .  There 
was  an  infinite  aim  and  purpose  about  the  man,  which  was 
certainly  very  taking.' 

38 «  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica,'  article  Swedenborgianism. 

39  Venable,  p.  211. 

<°  Maria  Ward,  «  Fifteen  Years  Among  the  Mormons,'  p.  17. 


234    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Celestial  Marriage  has  a  formal  likeness  to  parts  of 
the  Arcana  Coelestia,  while  his  Address  to  the 
Church,  of  September  6,  1842,  enumerates  these 
celestial  messages: — 'A  voice  of  the  Lord  in  the 
Wilderness  of  Fayette  .  .  .  the  voice  of  Michael 
on  the  banks  of  the  Susquehanna,  ...  the 
voice  of  Gabriel  and  of  Raphael  and  of  divers 
angels.'  This  reads  like  the  ravings  of  Sweden- 
borg,  but  in  the  Wilderness  of  Fayette  the  motley 
angels  of  the  seer  of  Stockholm41  had  not  yet  made 
their  appearance;  Smith's  celestial  visitants  were  of 
the  orthodox  variety. 

The  second  explanation  of  Smith's  occultism  was 
that  he  was  a  Mesmerist.  This  rests  on  the  author 
ity  of  a  female  apostate.  By  her  the  prophet  is  said 
to  exclaim,  '  I  could  transform  my  enemies  to  life 
less,  senseless  lumps  of  clay.  ...  I  could  de 
prive  them  of  their  senses,  or  compel  them  to  do 
my  bidding,  even  to  take  their  own  lives.'42  The 
force  of  this  testimony  is  spoiled  by  exaggeration 
and  also  by  an  acknowledged  difficulty  of  date, — 
'  the  mystery  of  it  is,  how  Smith  came  to  possess 
the  knowledge  of  that  magnetic  influence,  several 
years  before  its  general  circulation  throughout  the 
country.'  Another  untrustworthy  female  claims  to 
know  the  exact  source  of  Joseph's  '  mysterious 

41  Compare Immanuel  Kant,'  Traiime  eines  Geistersehers,'  1766. 

42  Maria  Ward,  p.  25. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  235 

power.'  It  was  Mrs.  Bradish  who  said,  'Smith 
obtained  his  information,  and  learned  all  the  strokes, 
and  passes,  and  manipulations  from  a  German 
peddlar.  **  The  story  is  ingenious,  but  this  was 
not  true  Mesmerism,  for  Mesmer  did  not  use  the 
peculiar,  monotonous,  long-continued  passes. u 

Smith's  power  of  fascination  was,  in  the  next 
place,  attributed  to  a  magnetic  force,  which  per 
meated  and  radiated  from  his  whole  being.*5  A 
prominent  statesman  was  averred  to  have  held  this 
view,  after  seeing  Smith  '  electrify '  and  cure  a  par 
alyzed  arm.48  The  theory  is  interesting,  but  it  over- 
explains.  Joseph  had  immense  influence  long  be 
fore  this  country  was  permeated  by  a  distorted 
mesmerism.  How  the  latter  was  imported  into 
America  is  hard  to  say.  After  his  downfall,  Mes- 
mer's  theory  of  animal  magnetism  was  indeed  con 
tinued,  but  under  another  name;  Petetins'  work  on 
animal  electricity  was  published  in  1808,  but  its 
historic  influence  was  slight.47  In  France  by  its 
own  excesses  mesmerism  had  given  itself  a  black 
eye.  In  England  the  efforts  of  two  reputable  phy 
sicians  to  introduce  magnetism  were  unavailing.48 

«  Ward,  p.  417. 

44  Moll,  p.  40. 

4i  G.  Q.  Cannon,  '  Life  of  Joseph  Smith  the  Prophet,'  p.  323. 

49  James  A.  Garfield,  mentioned  in  «  History  of  the  Church,'  p.  91. 

47  Jastrow,  p.  195. 

48  Namely  Ashburner  and  Elliotson.     Compare  Moll,  p.  14. 


236    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

No  regular  experimenter  seems  to  have  taken  hold  of 
the  subject  until  Braid,  in  1842,  published  his  Satanic 
Agency  and  Mesmerism.**  What  the  charlatans 
were  doing  in  the  meanwhile  was  but  subterranean. 
Judging  from  the  scanty  literary  remains,50  the 
movement  must  have  got  into  America  in  the  dark; 
at  any  rate  its  academic  entry  into  New  York  State 
was  late.  It  is  said  that  Dr.  Grimes,  then  a  medical 
student  in  Buffalo,  learned  Mesmer's  Parisian 
methods  and  applied  them  in  a  journey  along  the  Erie 
canal.51  The  Fox  sisters  were  especially  susceptible 
and  next  year,  in  Canandaigua  the  '  Bethlehem  of  the 
Dispensation,'  there  came  a  message  that  'a  refor 
mation  was  going  on  in  the  spirit  world.'62  These 
phenomena  in  their  quasi-scientific  form  cannot  be 
pushed  back  of  the  forties.  It  was  in  1848  that  the 
'  spirit-circles '  began  to  spread  over  the  land,53  while 
Grimes'  town  hall  lectures,  on  what  he  called 
electro-biology,  were  later  than  Braid's  first  work. 

49  The  work  of   1852  borrowed  the  last  part  of  its  title  from 
Grimes.     Compare  Braid,  '  Magic,  Witchcraft,  Animal  Magnetism, 
Hypnotism  and  Electro-Biology.' 

50  In  the  '  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica,'  22,  404,  it  is  said  that  animal 
magnetism  spread  over  America  in   1848;  no  details  are  given  as 
to  its  introduction.     Binet  and  Fere  and  also  Moll  make  Grimes 
independent  of  Braid. 

61  For  this  suggestion  I  am  indebted  to  Prof.  Charles  F.  Bristol, 
of  New  York  University. 

«  Parke,  p.  267. 

63  Johnstone's  * Encyclopedia,'  article  Spiritualism  by  Robert 
Dale  Owen. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  237 

Finally  attempts  have  been  made  to  connect 
Smith  with  spiritualism  of  the  Yankee  variety. 
The  allegations  are  so  curious  as  to  merit  quotation. 
One  of  the  cult  says:  'the  conclusions  to  which  we 
have  arrived  are,  that  the  Book  of  Mormon  is  to  a 
very  great  extent,  a  spiritual  romance,  originating 
in  the  spiritual  world,  and  that  Joseph  Smith  was 
the  medium,  or  the  principal  one,  through  whom  it 
was  given.'6*  A  later  writer  is  more  eloquent : — 
'  The  spiritual  beings  who  have  originated  our  sys 
tem  announce  a  grander  spiritual  movement,  one 
acting  with  all  the  power  and  the  benefit  of  organ 
ization  and  unity.  For  this  purpose  Joseph  Smith 
was  raised  up,  mainly  that  he  might  gather  an  in 
spirational  people,  among  whom  such  a  system 
could  in  due  time  be  founded.  .  .  .  Joseph 
Smith  was  raised  up  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  es 
tablishment  of  a  central  spiritual  power  which, 
when  fully  developed,  shall  sweep  all  that  there  is 
valuable  in  spiritualism  within  its  ample  folds,  ta 
king  its  highest  order  of  seers,  its  prophets,  its  spir 
itual  healers.' 65  It  is  true  that  Joseph,  like  the  spirit 
ualists,  had  his  beliefs  in  possession  and  obsession, 
but  they  were  of  the  good  old  ecclesiastical  sort, 
while  his  revelation  of  Celestial  Marriage  in  1844, 

64  Tiffany's  Monthly,  May,  1859. 

65  E.  L.  T.  Harrison,  «The  Church  of  Zion;  or  the  Question,  Is 
it  Spiritualism  ?'  1870. 


238     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

antedated  by  a  decade  the  prosaic  free-love  doctrine 
of  the  degenerate  'Rochester  rappers.'56 

To  sum  up:  even  at  the  time  of  Smith's  death,  of- 
cial  spiritualism  was  beyond  his  ken.  Yet  there 
were  forerunners  of  the  movement,  which  may 
have  affected  the  young  man.  Thus  there  was  a 
confessed  likeness  between  the  spiritualists  and  the 
primitive  Quakers,  who  '  also  believed  in  manifesta 
tions  through  outward  voices  and  appearances, 
through  dreams,  and  through  inward  spiritual  im 
pressions.'  Such  a  comparison  furnishes  the  real 
clue  in  Joseph's  case,67  not  because  his  family  had  a 
chance  acquaintance  with  the  Friends,68  but  because 
of  the  religious  primitiveness  common  to  the  minor 
sects.  Quakers,  Primitive  Baptists,  Restorationers 
and  Latter-day  Saints,  all  hoped  for  the  return  of 
apostolic  gifts.  A  Mormon  elder  might  speak  of 
being  a  'medium  of  communication  and  intelli 
gence  ' 69  but  only  in  the  scriptural  sense ;  the  prophet 
himself  might  receive  revelations,  but  it  was  as  the 
'  mouth-piece  of  the  Lord. '  At  first  he  was  far  from 
being  an  '  exponent  of  the  spiritual  philosophy  of  the 

66  Compare  Margaretta  Fox,  « The  Love  Life  of  Dr.  Kane.' 

"  Compare  Eugene  Crowell,  « The  Identity  of  Primitive  Chris 
tianity  and  Modern  Spiritualism.' 

68 «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  160.  Compare  also  Parke,  p.  267, 
where  it  is  said  that  the  first  message  of  the  Fox  sisters  was  in  the 
Quaker  jargon. 

M«  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  684. 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  239 

nineteenth  century';60  in  fact  he  was  rather  cautious 
in  interpreting  messages  from  the  other  world.  To 
an  anxious  seeker  after  the  interpretation  of  a  trance 
communication,  he  gave  but  a  general  answer.61 
This  was  in  1833;  ten  years  later,  it  is  true,  there  is 
a  '  philosophical '  passage  with  some  resemblance 
to  the  teachings  of  the  spiritualists,  but  the  precise 
style  and  the  nice  distinctions  point  to  another 
source.  This  crass  materialism  came  from  Orson 
Pratt,  the  '  gauge  of  philosophy,'  father  of  Mormon 
metaphysics  and  author  of  The  Absurdities  of  Im- 
materialism**  Joseph's  presentation  is  as  follows: 

eo  The  sub-title  of  the  Spiritualists'  organ,  The  Banner  of  Light. 

61  F.  G.  Bishop,  'An  Address,'  1851,  p.  25.     « A  certain  vision 
which  I  saw  in  a  state  of  trance  in  1826.     It  was  on  a  Saturday 
evening,  and  on  the  yth  of  May,  as  I  was  retired  in  the  forest  and 
engaged  in  solemn  prayer  to  God,  that  I  suddenly  became  insensi 
ble  to  anything  around  me  on  earth,  and  yet  I  was  fully  alive  to 
the  scenes  before  me.     I  seemed  to  stand  on  air  and  surrounded 
with  spirits,  yet  none  of  these  seemed  plainly  visible.     There  ap 
peared  three  persons,  they  fixed  their  eyes  upon  me  and  smiled  so 
that  I  was  in  a  perfect  ecstasy.     It  seemed  as  if  a  power  rested 
upon  my  head  which  pervaded  my  entire  person.     At  the  same  in 
stant  this  wonderful  personage  disappeared,  and  I  again  returned 
to  consciousness  in  the  body  as  before,  deeply  pondering  on  this 
extraordinary  vision.     When  I  first  saw  the  three  persons,  I  knew 
they  were  angels.      This  vision  was  pronounced  by  Joseph  the 
Prophet  in   1833,  a  Holy  vision  from  God,  but  he  said  he  did 
not  know  its  meaning.     Now  I  have  been  instructed  this  is  its 
signification.     The  three  angels  are  the  three  Nephites.' 

62  Compare  p.  23  : — <  That  spiritual  bodies  are  capable  of  con 
densation,  is  evident  from  the  fact  of  their  occupying  the  small 
bodies  of  infants.     The  spirits  of  just  men,  who  have  departed  from 


24o  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

'  In  tracing  the  thing  to  the  foundation,  and  looking  at 
it  philosophically  we  shall  find  a  very  material  difference 
between  the  body  and  the  spirit : — the  body  is  supposed 
to  be  organized  matter,  and  the  spirit  by  many  is  thought 
to  be  immaterial,  without  substance.  With  this  latter 
statement  we  should  beg  leave  to  differ — and  state  that 
spirit  is  a  substance,  that  it  is  material,  but  that  it  is  more 
pure,  elastic,  and  refined  matter  than  the  body; — that  it 
existed  before  the  body,  can  exist  in  the  body,  and  will 
exist  seperate  from  the  body.' 63 

the  fleshly  tabernacle,  have  been  seen  by  the  inspired  writers ;  and 
from  their  description  of  them,  we  should  not  only  judge  them  to 
be  of  the  same  form,  but  likewise  of  about  the  same  size  as  man 
in  this  life.  These  departed  spirits,  then,  which  are  about  the 
same  magnitude  as  men  in  the  flesh,  once  occupied  infant  bodies. 
There  are  only  two  methods  by  which  to  account  for  their  increase 
in  magnitude ;  one  is  by  an  additional  quantity  of  spiritual  matter, 
being  gradually  and  continually  incorporated  in  the  spiritual  body, 
by  which  its  magnitude  is  increased  in  the  same  way  and  in  the 
same  proportion  as  the  fleshly  body  is  increased.  And  the  other 
is  by  its  elasticity  or  expansive  properties  by  which  it  increases  in 
size,  as  the  tabernacle  of  flesh  and  bones  increases,  until  it  attains 
to  its  natural  magnitude,  or  until  its  expansive  and  cohesive  prop 
erties  balance  each  other,  or  are  in  a  state  of  equilibrium.' 

« '  Times  and  Seasons,'  3, 745.  Compare  E.  W.  Cox, « Spiritualism 
Answered  by  Science,'  New  York,  1872,  p.  46  : — The  theory  of  the 
spiritualists  : — '  Man,  they  say,  is  composed  of  body,  mind,  and 
spirit.  A  blow  will  extinguish  the  mind,  and  the  body  inhabited 
by  the  spirit  may  continue  to  live.  When  the  body  dies,  the  spirit 
which  occupied  it  in  life  passes  into  a  new  existence,  in  which,  as 
it  was  here,  it  is  surrounded  by  conditions  adapted  to  its  structure 
as  a  being  which  by  earthly  senses  is  deemed  immaterial  because 
impalpable  to  them,  but  which  is  really  very  refined  matter.  Into 
this  new  existence  it  passes  precisely  as  it  left  the  present  life, 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  241 

Only  occasionally,  did  the  prophet,  seer  and 
revelator  essay  to  be  a  philosopher;  at  such  times  he 
was  a  mystic  rather  than  a  materialist,  and  his  views 
savored  more  of  the  sects  than  of  the  schools.  For 
example,  the  Irvingites,  who  claimed  to  be  sacred 
mediums  of  communication  between  heaven  and 
earth,  once  came  to  express  sympathy  with  the 
Mormons  for  their  belief  in  the  restoration  of 
primitive  gifts.64  Smith  scouted  their  achievements, 
and  linked  with  them  the  strange  performances  of 
the  two  Campbells  in  Scotland.65  This  was  but  two 
years  before  the  prophet's  death;  his  outlook  had 
broadened,  but  not  his  way  of  looking  at  psychic 
phenomena.  His  very  language  bewrayed  more  of 
the  medieval  than  the  modern.  As  final  proof  that 
he  had  but  the  remotest  connection  with  the  crude 
ontologies  of  his  generation,  two  examples  may  be 
taken,  one  his  so-called  tests  of  supernatural 
messengers,66  the  other  his  editorial  entitled,  'Try 


taking  with  it  the  mental,  but  not  the  bodily,  characteristics  it  had 
on  earth,  so  far  as  these  are  adapted  to  the  altered  conditions  of 
that  new  existence.  The  intellect  is  enlarged  to  the  extent  only  of 
the  increased  power  of  obtaining  intelligence  necessarily  resulting 
from  exemption  from  the  laws  of  gravitation  and  the  conditions  of 
time  and  space  that  limit  the  powers  of  the  spirit  while  it  is  in  the 
flesh." 

«« McClintock  and  Strong, « Encyclopedia,'  article  Mormonism. 

88 '  Times  and  Seasons/  2,  746. 

66  Cannon,  p.  404. 


242    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

the  Spirits.'67  The  first  was  meant  for  his  worried 
devotees.  '  If  an  angel,'  he  says,  '  shakes  hands  and 
you  can  feel  his  hand,  all  is  well;  if  he  is  the  spirit 
of  a  just  man  made  perfect,  he  will  not  move;  if  he 
is  the  devil,  as  an  angel  of  light,  you  cannot  feel  his 
hand.'68  This  was  meant  for  home  consumption; 

67  '  Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  744-6. 

es  Compare  also  Smith  in  Millennial  Star,  17,  312  : — '  We  are  to 
try  the  spirits  and  prove  them,  for  it  is  often  the  case  that  men  make 
a  mistake  in  regard  to  these  things.  God  has  so  ordained  that  when 
He  has  communicated,  no  vision  is  to  be  taken  but  what  you  see 
by  the  seeing  of  the  eye,  or  what  you  hear  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear. 
When  you  see  a  vision,  pray  for  the  interpretation  ;  if  you  get  not 
this,  shut  it  up ;  there  must  be  certainty  in  this  matter.  An  open 
vision  will  manifest  that  which  is  more  important.  Lying  spirits 
are  going  forth  in  the  earth.  There  will  be  great  manifestations 
of  spirits,  both  false  and  true.  Being  born  again,  comes  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  through  ordinances.  An  angel  of  God  never  has 
wings.  Some  will  say  that  they  have  seen  a  spirit ;  that  he  offered 
them  his  hand,  but  they  did  not  touch  it.  This  is  a  lie.  First,  it 
is  contrary  to  the  plan  of  God ;  a  spirit  cannot  come  but  in  glory ; 
an  angel  has  flesh  and  bones ;  we  see  not  their  glory.  The  devil 
may  appear  as  an  angel  of  light.  Ask  God  to  reveal  it ;  if  it  be  of 
the  devil  he  will  flee  from  you  ;  if  of  God,  he  will  manifest  himself 
or  make  it  manifest.  We  may  come  to  Jesus  and  ask  Him  ;  He  will 
know  all  about  it ;  if  He  comes  to  a  little  child  He  will  adapt  Him, 
self  to  the  language  and  capacity  of  a  little  child.  Every  spirit,  or 
vision,  or  singing,  is  not  of  God.  The  devil  is  an  orator ;  he  is 
powerful ;  he  took  our  Saviour  on  to  a  pinnacle  of  the  temple  and 
kept  Him  in  the  wilderness  for  forty  days.  The  gift  of  discerning 
of  spirits  will  be  given  to  the  Presiding  Elder.  Pray  for  him  that 
he  may  have  this  gift.  Speak  not  in  the  gift  of  tongues  without 
understanding  it,  or  without  interpretation.  The  devil  can  speak 
in  tongues ;  the  adversary  will  come  with  his  work ;  he  can  tempt 
all  classes;  can  speak  in  English  or  Dutch.  Let  no  one  speak  in 


JOSEPH  THE  OCCULTIST  243 

the  editorial,  of  April  ist,  1842,  was  directed  to  the 

public: — 

'  Recent  events  compel  me  to  say  something 
about  the  spirits.  '  One  great  evil  is  that  men 
are  ignorant  of  the  nature  of  spirits ;  their  power, 
laws,  government,  intelligence,  etc.,  and  im 
agine  that  when  there  is  anything  like  power, 
revelation,  or  vision  manifested  that  it  must  be 
of  God  : — hence  the  Methodists,  Presbyterians, 
and  others  frequently  possess  a  spirit  that  will 
cause  them  to  lay  down,  and  during  its  opera 
tion  animation  is  frequently  entirely  suspended ; 
they  consider  it  to  be  the  power  of  God,  and  a 
glorious  manifestation  from  God ;  a  manifestation 
of  what  ? — is  there  any  intelligence  communi 
cated  ?  are  the  curtains  of  heaven  withdrawn, 
or  the  purposes  of  God  developed  ? — have  they 
seen  and  conversed  with  an  angel ;  or  have  the 
glories  of  futurity  burst  upon  their  view  ?  No  ! 
but  their  body  has  been  inanimate,  the  opera 
tion  of  their  spirit  suspended,  and  all  the  in 
telligence  that  can  be  obtained  from  them  when 
they  arise,  is  a  shout  of  glory,  or  hallelujah,  or 
some  incoherent  expression ;  but  they  have  had 
"the  power."  The  Shaker  will  whirl  around 
on  his  heel  impelled  by  a  supernatural  agency, 
or  spirit,  and  think  that  he  is  governed  by  the 
spirit  of  God  ;  and  the  jumper  will  jump,  and 
enter  into  all  kinds  of  extravagancies,  a  Primi- 

tongues  unless  he  interpret,  except  by  the  consent  of  the  one  who 
is  placed  to  preside ;  then  he  may  discern  or  interpret,  or  another 
may.' 


244     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

tive  Methodist  will  shout  under  the  influence  of 
that  spirit  until  he  will  rend  the  heavens  with 
his  cries;  while  the  Quakers,  (or  Friends) 
moved  as  they  think  by  the  spirit  of  God,  will 
sit  still  and  say  nothing.' 


CHAPTER  VIII 
JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST 


CHAPTER  VIII 

JOSEPH   THE  EXORCIST 

BEFORE  considering  the  'great  manifestations  of 
spirits'  among  the  Latter-day  Saints,  it  is  desirable  to 
note  some  of  the  outward  and  visible  signs  of 
growth,  some  of  the  causes  of  success,  and  some 
of  the  records  and  documents  of  the  organization. 

'  We  review  his  career,  and  behold  him  from  the 
poor,  despised  visionary  of  Manchester,  rising  in  the 
short  space  of  fifteen  years,  to  the  presidency  of  a 
church  numbering  not  less  than  200,000  souls.'  l  A 
gentile  visitor  at  Nauvoo,  in  1844,  thus  eulogized 
the  prophet.  His  statement  was  welcomed  by  the 
Mormons  as  proof  of  their  divine  origin;  for  all  that 
their  spread  was  truly  remarkable.  In  the  Middle 
West  they  had  their  struggle  for  existence;  the 
Church  was  persecuted,  its  founder  killed.  Then 
began  the  wholesale  emigration  under  Brigham 
Young.  Unusual  executive  ability  was  displayed  in 
this  flight  of  the  Mormon  tribe,  and  astonishing 
fortitude  in  crossing  the  Rockies  and  the  alkali 

1 « Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  589. 
247 


248  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

plains.  At  last,  in  the  far  West  there  came  a  chance 
for  unrestricted  development.  In  a  secluded  valley 
of  Utah  the  polygamous  Saints  attached  themselves 
to  the  soil,  and  increased  with  the  rapidity  of  an 
isolated  germ  culture.  As  a  bit  of  historical  path 
ology,  the  growth  of  Mormondom  is  unique  and 
merits  thorough  investigation.  But  since  a  bio 
graphical  study  deals,  perforce,  with  inward  causes 
and  individual  origins,  it  is  necessary  to  return  to 
the  infant  church,  as  it  was  affected  by  the  person 
ality  of  its  founder. 

Mormonism  contained,  from  the  start,  the  ele 
ments  of  denominational  success.  In  the  first  place, 
no  other  American  sect  could  point  to  a  Bible  of  its 
own  manufacture.  As  the  Latter-day  poet  ex 
claimed:  'embalmed  records,  plates  of  gold,  glorious 
things  to  us  unfold.'2  But  the  acceptance  of  the 
Book  was  due  to  more  than  the  archaic  embellish 
ments  of  the  author.  It  is  the  old  story  of  a  terri 
tory  already  prepared.  The  locality,  where  Joseph 
brought  forth  the  'ancient  engravings  of  Nephi,' 
was  the  locality  where  the  Cardiff  giant  hoax  was 
perpetrated.  But  although  first  readers  of  the  Booh 
of  Mormon  were  credulous,  they  had  a  patriotic 
streak  in  their  archaeological  interests.  As  Oliver 
Cowdery  said  'a  history  of  the  inhabitants  who 
peopled  this  continent,  previous  to  its  being  dis- 
» «  Times  and  Seasons,'  2,  421. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  249 

covered  to  Europeans  by  Columbus  must  be  inter 
esting  to  every  man.'3 

Another  element  of  success  was  that  no  other 
native  sect  had  revelations  in  such  profusion 
and  in  such  business-like  form.  As  compiled 
in  the  Book  of  Commandments  these  form  the 
rarest  of  all  original  Mormon  sources,*  and,  at 
the  same  time,  the  most  valued  of  their  in 
spired  writings.  It  is  the  Booh  of  Mormon  '  backed 
up'  by  this  'other  book  taken  to  the  Lamanites' 
that  forms  the  real  Mormon  Canon.5  As  the  prophet 
queried:  'Take  away  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  the 
Revelations,  and  where  is  our  religion?'6  As  an- 

*  Cowdery,  p.  28.  Compare  « Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  152. 
Joseph's  young  brother  Samuel,  being  « set  apart  on  a  mission  to 
sell  the  books,'  asked  his  customers  if  they  did  not  wish  to  pur 
chase  « a  history  of  the  origin  of  the  Indians.' 

*Sabin,  «  Bibliothica  Americana,'  12,  384,  says  this  book  was 
never  published.  There  is  a  copy  in  the  Berrian  Collection.  The 
copy  here  used  is  the  Salt  Lake  Tribune  reprint  of  1884. 

5  'Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  762. 

6 'Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  1060.  Compare  preface  to  first  edi 
tion  of  '  Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  1835  : — '  ^e  deem  it  to  be  un 
necessary  to  entertain  you  with  a  lengthy  preface  to  the  following 
volume,  but  merely  to  say  that  it  contains  in  short  the  leading 
items  of  the  religion  which  we  have  professed  to  believe.  The 
first  part  of  the  book  will  be  found  to  contain  a  series  of  lectures  as 
delivered  before  a  theological  class  in  this  place,  and,  in  conse 
quence  of  their  embracing  the  important  doctrine  of  salvation,  we 
have  arranged  them  into  the  following  work.  .  .  .  There 
may  be  an  aversion  in  the  minds  of  some  against  receiving  any 
thing  purporting  to  be  articles  of  religious  faith,  in  consequence  of 
there  being  so  many  creeds  now  extant ;  but  if  men  believe  a  sys- 


250    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

other  curiosity  of  Mormon  literature  the  history  of 
this  volume  may  be  briefly  sketched.  Joseph's 
youthful  prophecies  have  been  preserved  only  in 
the  narrative  of  his  mother;  but  the  vaticinations 
of  the  year  1829  proved  so  successful,  that  they 
were  thought  worth  preserving;  so  on  April  6th, 
1830,  there  came  this  revelation:  'Behold  there 
shall  be  a  record  kept  among  you,  and  in  it  thou 
shalt  be  a  seer,  a  translator,  a  prophet.'7  Within  a 
score  of  weeks  the  prophet  created  a  monopoly  of 
oracular  responses, — '  no  one  shall  be  appointed  to 
receive  commandments  and  revelations  in  this 
church,  excepting  my  servant  Joseph.'8 

The  Book  of  Commandments  comprises  fifty-five 
chapters  and  runs  to  September,  1831.  The  council 
ordered  that  three  thousand  copies  be  printed  in  the 
first  edition.  David  Whitmer  says  that  he  warned 
Smith  and  Rigdon  against  this,  '  for  the  world  would 
get  hold  of  the  books  and  it  would  not  do.'  He  adds 
that,  from  the  time  some  of  the  copies  slipped 
through  the  hands  of  the  unwise  brethren,  the  ill-feel 
ing  against  the  Saints  increased.9  Whether  this  is  true 

tern  and  profess  that  it  was  given  by  inspiration,  certainly  the  more 
intelligibly  they  can  present  it  the  better.  .  .  .  We  have, 
therefore,  endeavored  to  present,  though  in  few  words,  our  belief, 
and,  when  we  say  this,  humbly  trust  the  faith  and  principles  of 
this  society  as  a  body.' 

*  '  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  22. 

8 «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  30. 

9  '  Address,'  p.  55. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  251 

or  not,  on  July  2oth,  1833,  the  Mormon  printing 
office  in  Independence,  Missouri,  was  torn  down 
by  the  mob,  but  not  before  the  book  was  com 
pleted.10 

The  relation  of  this  supplementary  brochure  to 
the  Book  of  Mormon  has  been  compared  with  that 
of  the  Talmud  to  the  Old  Testament.11  The  com 
parison  is  too  dignified.  The  Mormon  theocratic 
code,  such  as  it  was,  is  here  presented,  but  there  is 
besides  a  welter  of  undefmable  utterances.  The 
Gemara  added  to  the  Mishna  gives  no  idea  of  this 
curious  mixture  of  religion  and  business. 

The  Book  of  Commandments  is,  in  part,  a  book 
of  discipline,  wherein  the  '  Articles  and  Covenants  of 
the  Church  of  Christ '  are  given  at  length.18  But  the 


»o 'Handbook  of  Reference/  p.  42.  The  Berrian  Sale  Cata 
logue  makes  this  contradictory  statement : — «  This  book  was  never 
published,  nor  even  completed.  Only  two  copies  are  known. 
The  sheets  were  destroyed  by  a  Missouri  mob,  etc.  For  a  lengthy 
description  of  this  rare  book  see  Chas.  L.  Woodward's  "  Biblio 
graphy  on  Mormonism." ' 

11  McClintock  and  Strong,  article  « Mormonism.' 

12  Chapter  24.     Compare  also  chapter  20 : — '  It  shall  be  the  duty 
of  the  several  churches  composing  the  church  of  Christ,  to  send 
one  or  more  of  their  teachers  to  attend  the  several  conferences  held 
by  the  elders  of  the  church.     With  a  list  of  the  names  of  the  sev 
eral  members  uniting  themselves  with  the  church  since  the  last 
conference,  or  send  by  the  hand  of  some  priest,  so  that  a  regular 
list  of  all  the  names  of  the  whole  church  may  be  kept  in  the  book 
by  one  of  the  elders,  whoever  the  other  elders  shall  appoint  from 
time  to  time.' 


252     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

pamphlet  offers  not  only  rules  of  action,  but  food 
for  thought;  in  addition  to  the  duties  of  the  Elders 
or  of  the  Seventies,  there  are  scattered  throughout 
rare  bits  of  scriptural  interpretation.  An  entire 
alphabet  of  mystic  exegesis  is  here  set  forth,  from 
Aaronic  Priesthood,  Baptism  for  the  Dead,  Celes 
tial  glory  and  the  Devil  before  Adam,  down  to 
Questions  and  Answers  on  the  Apocalypse.  Thus 
in  its  confusion  of  contents  the  work  has  a  general 
semblance  to  Joseph's  former  monument  of  mis 
placed  energy.  Its  biographical  and  personal  char 
acter  is  also  evident  from  the  author's  communings 
with  himself.  Yet  the  book  is  not  merely  a  private 
journal,  it  is  a  sort  of  public  ledger;  as  the  church  in 
creased,  the  prophet  opens  up  an  account  with  each 
new  member.  There  were  in  particular  celestial 
orders  upon  converts  with  cash;  thus:  'My  servant 
Martin  should  be  an  example  to  the  church  in  laying 
his  moneys  before  the  bishop  of  the  church,  and 
my  servant  Edward  should  leave  his  merchan 
dise  and  spend  all  his  time  in  the  labors  of  the 
church.'13 

The  names  of  the  ecclesiastical  customers  were 
not  given  in  full  in  the  first  instance;  it  is  the  change 
towards  particularity  that  denotes  the  emended  edit 
ion  of  the  Booh  of  Commandments.  The  revamped 
and  enlarged  edition  is  entitled  The  Doctrine  and 

13 « Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapters  49  and  43. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  253 

Covenants."  It  consists,  for  the  most  part,  of  revel 
ations  to  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  '  for  the  building  up 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  the  last  days';  it  also 
contains  an  account  of  '  the  martyrdom  of  the 
prophet,'  and  lastly  the  '  Word  and  will  of  the  Lord 
given  through  President  Brigham  Young,  January 
1 4th,  1847.'  The  Commandments  and  the  Covenants 
together  give  an  external  history  of  the  Church, 
while  the  material  alterations  of  the  former  into  the 
latter  betray  some  of  the  state  secrets.  As  usual, 
many  hundred  emendations  have  been  discovered.16 
One  instance  is  enough  to  disclose  the  trend  of  these 
changes;  their  mercantile  purpose  is  to  be  seen  from 
a  single  italicized  word.  A  revelation  was  given  in 
July,  1830,  to  the  prophet's  wife.  The  first  edition 
reads:  'Emma  thou  art  an  elect  lady  and  thou 
needest  not  fear,  for  thy  husband  shalt  support  thee 
from  the  Church ; ' 16  the  second  edition  reads :  '  thy 
husband  shall  support  thee  in  the  Church.' 1T 

14  The  edition  here  employed  is  that «  divided  into  verses,  with 
references,'  by  Orson  Pratt,  senior,  Salt  Lake  City,   1883.     The 
revelations  from  July,   1828,  through  September,  1831,  are,  how 
ever,  quoted  from  the  '  Book  of  Commandments.' 

15  Charles  L.  Woodward,  of  New  York  City,  has  arranged  the 
two  books  in  the  deadly  parallel  column.     Thus  the  words  in  italics 
have  been  added,  in  the  following  revelation  to  Joseph  :  '  And  you 
have  a  gift  to  translate  the  plates,  and  this  is  the  first  gift  that  I  be 
stowed  upon  you,  and  I  have  commanded  you  that  you  should  pre 
tend  to  no  other  gift,  until  my  purpose  is  fulfilled  in  this  ;  for  I  will 
grant  unto  you  no  other  gift  until  it  is  finished? 

16 « Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  26. 
17 «  Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  §  25. 


254    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

So  much  for  the  significance  of  the  documents. 
With  the  Book  of  Mormon  printed  and  the  Book  of 
Commandments  slatted,  Mormonism  had  both  canon 
ical  and  prophetical  elements  of  success.  The 
further  causes  of  its  spread  may  be  regarded  in  so 
far  as  they  are  common  to  both  founder  and  fol 
lower.  The  hardest  thing  to  grasp  in  the  entire 
propaganda  is  that  curiously  narrow  attitude  of  mind 
which  regarded  this  as  the  ushering  in,  not  of  a  mere 
new  denomination,  but  of  a  new  dispensation. 
Perhaps  the  first  thing  to  appeal  to  the  dissatisfied 
religionist  was  the  prophet's  announcement  of  a 
'plain  and  simple  gospel.'18  As  previous  analysis 
has  shown,  complexity  and  not  simplicity  was  the 
mark  of  Joseph's  doctrine.  But  to  minds  whose  dis 
tinctions  comprised  no  differences,  this  very  confu 
sion  was  effective.  As  a  magazine  of  mixed  proof 
texts  the  Book  of  Mormon  appealed  to  all  sects.  To 
paraphrase  the  words  of  Benjamin  Franklin, — the  au 
thor's  heterodoxy  was  everybody's  orthodoxy.  So 
in  spite  of  all  the  talk  about  liberality,19  this  unsec- 
tarian  society  was  only  another  sect  in  process  of 
formation.  Its  principles  were  grand  enough,  but 
its  beginnings  were  very  small.  There  were  eleven 

18  This  phrase  begins  in  the  '  fore  part '  of  the  «  Book  of  Mormon  ' 
and  runs  throughout  Smith's  writings. 

19  For  a  general  tirade  against  the  sect  see  «  Book  of  Mormon ' 
p.  566 :  « O  ye  pollutions,  ye  hypocrites,  ye  teachers,  etc.'  Compare 
also  '  Pearl  of  Great  Price,'  p.  102. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  255 

witnesses  to  the  Record,  but  only  six  charter  mem 
bers  of  the  Church.20  That  'Church  of  Christ,'  as 
yet  without  the  full  title  of  Latter-day  Saints,  was 
organized,  according  to  law,  in  Fayette,  New  York, 
on  April  6th,  1830.  From  that  time,  says  the  prophet, 
the  work  'rolled  forth  with  astonishing  rapidity.'21 
Of  the  mental  calibre  of  Joseph's  fellow-workers 
something  more  must  be  said, — something  to  ex 
plain  the  paradox  of  their  making  puny  Mormonism 
equivalent  to  a  new  dispensation.  An  ethical  trav 
eler  in  America  remarked  that  strong  interest  in  re 
ligion  was  popularly  held  to  mean  conversion  to  a 

20  •  Handbook  of  Reference,'  p.  39 :  '  Names  of  members :  Joseph 
Smith,  junior,  O.  Cowdery,  Hyrum  Smith,  Peter  Whitmer,  Samuel 
H.  Smith  and  David  Whitmer.  When  the  Church  was  organized, 
the  first  public  ordinations  to  the  Melchisdek  Priesthood  took  place. 
Hands  were  also  laid  on  for  the  reception  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
for  the  confirmation  of  members  of  the  Church,  and  the  sacrament 
was  administered  for  the  first  time.' 

81 « Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  708.  Compare  Cowdery,  p.  40 :  '  Many 
of  the  elders  of  Christ's  church  have  since  been  commissioned  and 
sent  forth  over  this  vast  Republic,  from  river  to  river,  and  from 
valley  to  valley,  till  the  vast  sunny  plains  of  Missouri,  the  frozen 
regions  of  Canada,  and  the  eastern  Maine,  with  the  summer  States 
of  the  South,  have  been  saluted  with  the  sound  of  the  voice  of 
those  who  go  forth  for  the  last  time  to  say  to  Israel,  Prepare  for  the 
coming  of  thy  King.  Wonderful  to  tell !  Amid  the  frowns  of 
bigots,  the  sneers  of  hypocrites,  the  scoffs  of  the  foolish,  the  cal 
umny  of  slanderers,  the  ridicule  of  the  vain  and  the  popular  preju 
dice  of  a  people  estranged  from  God,  urged  on  to  deeds  of  villainy 
by  the  priests  of  Baal,  the  word  has  been  proclaimed  with  success, 
and  thousands  are  now  enjoying  the  benign  influence  of  the  love 
of  God  shed  forth  by  the  Comforter  upon  the  pure  in  heart.' 


256    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

particular  creed.22  Such  is  only  a  general  explana 
tion  of  the  particular  fallacy  of  taking  a  part  for  the 
whole.  More  precise  reasons  are  to  be  found.  The 
leanness  of  understanding  in  the  first  believers  was  to 
be  expected  from  the  poor  food  their  wits  were  fed 
on.  The  blame  was  not  wholly  theirs  but  lay  upon 
their  spiritual  guides.  The  education  of  the  back 
woods  clergy  did  not  extend  beyond  the  elements  of 
a  common  English  education.23  The  most  influential 
class  of  preachers,  the  Methodists,  relying  on  the  ad 
vice  of  Wesley,  gloried  in  a  '  saddle  bags '  educa 
tion.3*  It  is  unjust  to  disparage  the  itinerant  mission 
aries  who,  for  the  sake  of  their  religion,  forded  icy 
rivers  and  penetrated  dark  forests.  This  was  the  van 
of  the  army,  there  were  also  the  camp  followers, — 
the  sectarian  adventurers  whom  the  settled  clergy 
roundly  denounced  as  '  evangelists  destitute  of  clas 
sical  and  theological  furniture,  of  feeble  natural 
abilities,  boisterous,  vulgar,  irreverent,  fanatical.'25 
These  were  the  men  behind  the  revivalistic  ex 
cesses,  and  yet  the  people  came  miles  to  hear  them, 
hanging  on  their  words  day  after  day,  forgetting  the 
cares  of  business  and  the  very  wants  of  the  body.26 

22  Martineau,  2,  326. 

23  Thompson,  p.  186. 

24  John  Atkinson,  <  Centennial  History  of  American  Methodism,' 
1884,  p.  143.     Compare  supplement  to  Millennial  Star,  14,  319. 

25Hotchkin,  p.  172. 

26  De  Tocqueville,  2,  161. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  257 

The  eagerness  of  the  people  to  hear  something  new 
and  strange  was  matched  by  the  opposition  of  the 
older  churches.  As  Joseph's  mother  said,  even  be 
fore  the  Book  of  Mormon  was  printed,  '  the  different 
denominations  are  very  much  opposed  to  us.'27 
All  this  fostered  the  rise  of  new  sects;  for  the  per 
secution  of  the  larger  bodies  aroused  the  spirit  of 
the  smaller. 

The  pride  of  the  sectary,  the  search  for  novelty, 
and  mental  impoverishment  were  some  of  the  ^ 
natural  reasons  magnifying  the  importance  of  the 
Mormon  cult  in  the  eyes  of  its  votaries.  In  addition 
there  were  abnormal  forces;  at  work  as  Joseph  de 
scribed  the  matter:  — 

( Some  few  were  called  and  ordained  by  the  spirit  of 
revelation,  and  prophesy,  and  began  to  preach  as  the 
spirit  gave  them  utterance,  and  though  weak,  yet  were 
they  strengthened  by  the  power  of  God,  and  many  were 
brought  to  repentance,  were  immersed  in  the  water,  and 
were  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  laying  on  of 
hands.  They  saw  visions  and  prophesied,  devils  were 
cast  out  and  the  sick  healed  by  the  laying  on  of  hands. ' a8 

It  is  here  that  Smith  added  to  his  previous  claims 
the  function  of  exorcist.  His  clever  opportunism 
was  shown  in  the  natal  month  of  the  church.  In 
April,  1830,  says  the  official  chronicle,  'the  devil 

21"  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  146. 
28 '  Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  708. 


258     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

was  cast  out  of  Newel  Knight  through  the  adminis 
tration  of  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  in  Colesville,  Broom 
County,  New  York.  This  was  the  first  miracle 
which  was  done  in  this  Church,  or  by  any  member 
of  it,  and  it  was  not  done  by  men  nor  by  the  power 
of  man,  but  it  was  done  by  God,  and  the  power  of 
godliness.'29 

There  now  begins  a  series  of  performances  seem 
ingly  out  of  place  in  nineteenth  century  America,— 
the  Salem  witchcraft  of  a  century  and  a  half  before 
reappears  in  the  western  wilds.  There  was  the 
same  belief  in  demoniac  possession,  the  same  class 
of  neurotic  and  hysterical  sufferers,  the  same  cler 
ical  zeal  in  making  capital  out  of  the  preternatural. 
Fortunately  Joseph  Smith  was  not  a  reincarnation 
of  Cotton  Mather.  The  severest  mania  took  place 
under  another's  auspices,  and,  possibly  from  motives 
of  jealousy,  Smith  did  what  he  could  to  suppress 
this  '  work  of  the  Devil.' 

The  preconditions  of  the  first  '  miracle '  were  like 
those  of  the  previous  abnormalities.  Reaction 
brought  belief.  As  fast  as  apostolic  'gifts'  were 
denied  by  the  orthodox,  the  Latter-day  Saints 
affirmed  their  restoration.  Such  mental  habit  was 
found  in  the  first  Mormon  demoniac.  '  By  reading 
and  searching  the  Bible,'  says  Newel  Knight,  '1 
found  that  there  would  be  a  great  falling  away  from 

29 «  Handbook  of  Reference,'  p.  40. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  259 

the  gospel,  as  preached  and  established  by  Jesus  ; 
that  in  the  last  days  God  would  set  His  hand  to 
restore  that  which  was  lost."0  Soon  after  hearing 
the  first  public  gospel  sermon  of  this  dispensation," 
and  while  in  a  state  of  mental  and  physical  prostra 
tion,  Knight  was  attacked  by  the  '  power  of  Satan ' 
and  underwent  '  curious  actions  while  thus  af 
flicted.'82  Smith  himself  tells  how  he  met  the 
crisis:  — 

'I  went,  and  found  him  suffering  very  much  in  his 
mind,  and  his  body  acted  upon  in  a  very  strange  manner, 
his  visage  and  limbs  distorted  and  twisted  in  every  shape 
and  appearance  possible  to  imagine,  and  finally  he  was 
caught  up  off  the  floor  of  the  apartment  and  tossed  about 
most  fearfully.  His  situation  was  soon  made  known  to 
the  neighbors  and  relatives,  and  in  a  short  time  as  many 
as  eight  or  nine  grown  persons  had  got  together  to  wit 
ness  the  scene.  After  he  had  thus  suffered  for  a  time,  I 
succeeded  in  getting  hold  of  him  by  the  hand,  when  al 
most  immediately  he  spoke  to  me,  and  with  very  great 
earnestness  required  of  me  that  I  should  cast  the  devil 
out  of  him,  saying  that  he  knew  that  he  was  in  him,  and 
that  he  also  knew  I  could  cast  him  out.  I  replied,  "  If 
you  know  that  I  can,  it  shall  be  done,"  and  then  almost 
unconsciously  I  rebuked  the  devil  and  commanded  him 
in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  to  depart  from  him,  when 
immediately  Newell  spoke  out  and  said  that  he  saw  the 

80 « Journal/  p.  48. 

M « Handbook  of  Reference/  p.  40. 

89  •  Journal/  p.  50. 


260    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

devil  leave  him,  and  vanish  from  his  sight.     This  was 
the  first  miracle  that  was  done  in  this  church.' 

Of  the  therapeutic  aspect  of  this  case  more  will 
be  said  later.  As  the  history  of  obsession  shows, 
it  is  the  exorcist's  mental  suggestion,  conscious  or 
unconscious,  that  effects  these  *  miraculous  cures.' 
As  regards  the  psychic  state  of  the  patient,  the  pres 
ence  of  an  hallucinatory  image  was  afterwards  ad 
mitted  by  Knight  himself:  Being  'cross-examined 
as  to  the  devil  cast  out,  I  said  to  the  lawyer  "  it  will 
be  of  no  use  for  me  to  tell  you  what  the  devil 
looked  like,  for  it  was  a  spiritual  sight  and  spiritu 
ally  discerned,  and  of  course  you  would  not  under 
stand  if  I  were  to  tell  you  of  it." ' " 

The  highly  neurotic  condition  of  the  young  body 
of  believers  was  manifest  in  the  first  conference  of 
the  Church,  a  month  later, — 'many  prophesied, 
others  had  the  heavens  opened  to  their  view.'  In 
the  nature  of  things  the  prophet  did  not  lose  the 
advantage  of  the  Saints'  'unspeakable  joy.'  As 
Knight  recounts,  '  to  find  ourselves  engaged  in  the 
very  same  order  of  things  as  were  observed  and 
practiced  by  the  holy  apostles  of  old,  combined  to 
create  within  fresh  zeal  and  energy  in  the  cause  of 
truth,  and  also  to  confirm  our  faith  in  Joseph  Smith 
being  the  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God,  to  restore 

» '  Journal,'  p.  60. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  261 

the  Priesthood  again  to  man  on  earth  and  to  set  up 
the  Kingdom  of  God.'" 

Six  months  after  this  came  the  Kirtland  frenzy, 
when  many  were  'strangely  handled  by  the 
spirits.'  It  must  be  said  that  Smith  did  what  he 
could  to  suppress  the  spasmodic  attacks.  But  the 
people  looking  on  the  ecstasy  as  a  '  sign,'  the  indirect 
results  were  of  prime  importance  in  the  growth  of 
the  Church.  A  backbone  was  now  put  into  the 
flabby  embryo.  One  hundred  members  were  added 
to  the  struggling  Church  and,  more  than  all,  there 
was  brought  on  the  scene  the  Reverend  Sidney 
Rigdon,  the  so-called  brains  of  Mormonism.85 

3* 'Journal,'  pp.  52,  53. 

35  Compare  Appendix  III.  The  following  account  of  Rigdon  is 
compiled  from  'Times  and  Seasons,'  I,  135-652,429;  5,  612, 
650-739  ;  6, 899.  Compare  also  this  hitherto  unpublished  holograph 
letter,  from  the  Berrian  Collection : — '  Friendship,  Alleghany 
County,  New  York,  May  25,  1873,  We  are  fourscore  years  old  and 
seriously  afflicted  with  paralysis.  .  .  .  The  Lord  notified  us 
that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  were  agoing 
to  be  destroyed  and  for  us  to  leave  we  did  so  and  the  Smiths  were 
killed  a  few  days  after  we  started..  Since  then  I  have  had  no  con 
nection  with  any  of  the  people  who  staid  and  built  up  to  them 
selves  churches,  and  chose  to  themselves  leaders  such  as  they  chose 
and  then  framed  their  own  religion. 

The  Church  of  Latter-day  Saints  had  three  books  that  they  ac 
knowledge  as  Canonical.  The  Bible  the  book  of  Mormon  and 
the  commandments.  For  the  existence  of  that  church  there  had 
to  be  a  revelator  one  who  received  the  word  of  the  Lord.  A 
spokesman  one  inspired  of  God  to  expound  all  revelation  so  that 
the  church  might  all  be  of  one  faith.  Without  these  two  men  the 
Church  of  Latter-day  saints  could  not  exist.  This  order  ceased 


262     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

A  brief  history  of  the  latter  is  called  for.  An  ex- 
Campbellite  preacher  and  founder  of  a  communistic 
body  in  Ohio,  Rigdon  was  deemed  learned  in  his 
tory  and  literature,  and  gifted  in  his  flowery 
eloquence.  He  was  first  received  with  open  arms 
by  Smith,  but  became  later  'a  millstone  on  his  back,' 
and  was  finally  shaken  off  in  1843.  If  tne  Mormon 
accounts  are  further  to  be  believed,  Rigdon  was  the 
stormy  petrel  of  the  Church ; — where  he  was,  there 
was  trouble.  It  was  a  Fourth-of-July  oration  of  his 
that  roused  to  fury  'the  uncircumcised  Philistines 
of  Missouri.'  As  to  Rigdon's  undue  influence  over 
Smith  much  might  be  said  on  both  sides.86  On  the 

to  exist,  being  overcome  by  the  violence  of  armed  men  by  whom 
houses  were  beat  down  by  cannon  which  the  assalents  had 
furnished  themselves  with. 

Thus  ended  the  "  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  "— 
and  it  never  can  move  again  till  the  Lord  inspires  men  and  women 
to  do  it.' 

«•  Whitmer,  p.  35  : — •  In  December,  1830,  Sidney  Rigdon  and 
Edward  Partridge  came  from  Kirtland,  Ohio,  to  Fayette,  New 
York,  to  see  Brother  Joseph,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  winter 
they  returned  to  Kirtland.  In  February,  1831,  Brother  Joseph 
came  to  Kirtland  where  Rigdon  was.  Rigdon  was  a  thorough 
Bible  scholar,  a  man  of  fine  education,  and  a  powerful  orator.  He 
soon  worked  himself  deep  into  Brother  Joseph's  affections,  and 
had  more  influence  over  him  than  any  other  man  living.  He  was 
Brother  Joseph's  private  counsellor,  and  his  most  intimate  friend 
and  brother  for  some  time  after  they  met.  Brother  Joseph  rejoiced, 
believing  that  the  Lord  had  sent  to  him  this  great  and  mighty  man 
Sidney  Rigdon,  to  help  him  in  the  work.  Poor  Brother  Joseph  ! 
He  was  mistaken  about  this,  and  likewise  all  of  the  brethren  were 
mistaken;  for  we  thought  at  that  time  just  as  Brother  Joseph  did 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  263 

one  hand,  Joseph  announced  that  Sidney  was  the 
messenger  '  sent  to  prepare  the  way '  before  him, 
and  not  long  after  he  ordained  him  prophet,  seer 
and  revelator.  On  the  other  hand,  in  1841,  Rigdon 
was  ordered  by  revelation,  to  stay  in  Nauvoo;  while 
in  1844,  in  the  trial  before  the  council,  Smith 
openly  charged  him  with  '  wallowing  in  filthiness 
and  corruption.'  On  expulsion  from  the  Church, 
Rigdon  withdrew  to  Pittsburg  and  published  an 
anti-Mormon  paper,  the  Messenger  and  Advocate 
of  the  Church  of  Christ. 

In  comparing  the  two  men,  a  friend  of  both  said 
that  Rigdon  '  did  not  possess  the  native  intellect  of 
Smith,  and  lacked  his  determined  will.'87  There  is, 
furthermore,  reason  for  believing  that  Rigdon  was 
mentally  unsound.  In  old  age,  he  writes  that  he 

about  it.  But  alas !  in  a  few  years  we  found  out  different.  Sid 
ney  Rigdon  was  the  cause  of  almost  all  the  errors  which  were  in 
troduced  while  he  was  in  the  church.  I  believe  Rigdon  to  have 
been  the  instigator  of  the  secret  organization  known  as  the 
'Danites  '  which  was  formed  in  Far  West  Missouri  in  June,  1838. 
In  Kirtland,  Ohio,  in  1831,  Rigdon  would  expound  the  Old  Testa 
ment  scriptures  of  the  Bible  and  «  Book  of  Mormon  '  (in  his  way) 
to  Joseph,  concerning  the  priesthood,  high  priests,  etc.,  and 
would  persuade  Brother  Joseph  to  inquire  of  the  Lord  about  this 
doctrine  and  that  doctrine,  and  of  course  a  revelation  would  al 
ways  come  just  as  they  desired  it.  Rigdon  finally  persuaded 
Brother  Joseph  to  believe  that  the  high  priests  which  had  such 
great  power  in  ancient  times,  should  be  in  the  Church  of  Christ 
to-day.  He  had  Brother  Joseph  inquire  of  the  Lord  about  it,  and 
they  received  an  answer  according  to  their  erring  desires.' 
37  Burnett,  p.  67. 


264    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

was  afflicted  with  paralysis;  in  boyhood,  his  brother 
said  that  he  was  injured  in  the  head  by  falling  from 
a  horse;  in  1832,  long  before  their  ecclesiastical 
partnership  was  dissolved,  Smith  described  Rig- 
don  as  'delereous.'  On  March  25th,  the  two  had 
been  '  severely  mobbed '  in  Hiram,  Ohio.  '  The  next 
morning,'  narrates  the  prophet,  '  I  went  to  see  Elder 
Rigdon,  and  found  him  crazy,  and  his  head  highly 
inflamed,  for  they  had  dragged  him  by  his  heels, 
and  those  too,  so  high  from  the  earth  he  could  not 
raise  his  head  from  the  rough  frozen  surface  which 
lascerated  it  exceedingly.'  In  1840  Rigdon  wrote 
'  my  attendant  physician  has  forbid  my  using  any 
exertions,  either  mental  or  physical,  as  it  will  en 
danger  my  life.'  Rigdon's  erratic  tendencies  were 
cast  in  his  teeth  by  his  colleagues.  Orson  Hyde 
thus  apostrophized  him,  in  1844:  'Mr.  Rigdon,  do 
you  not  remember  how  you  came  into  a  certain 
council  about  the  ist  of  April  or  latter  part  of  March 
last,  that  had  been  organized  by  Joseph  Smith;  and 
also  how  you  danced  and  shouted,  and  threw  your 
feet  so  high  that  you  came  well  nigh  falling  back 
wards  upon  the  stove  ?  Certainly  you  must  re 
member  this;  for  you  frothed  at  the  mouth  like  a 
mad  man,  and  gave  glory  to  God  so  long  and  loud 
that  you  became  entirely  hoarse  and  exhausted.1 
Whatever  judgment  may  be  passed  on  Rigdon 
morally,  mentally  his  character  was  one  of  extremes 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  265 

and,  as  such,  had  an  abnormal  influence  on  early 
Mormondom;  as  Bishop  Whitmer  put  it:  '  He  was 
always  either  in  the  bottom  of  the  cellar  or  up  in 
the  garret  window.  At  the  time  his  license  was 
taken  in  Kirtland  he  was  more  sanguine  than  he  is 
now.  The  people  were  excited  very  much  at  that 
time.' 

From  all  sides  it  is  clear  that  Rigdon  was  the 
moving  spirit  in  the  Kirtland  frenzy;  but  there  were 
also  deeper  underlying  causes  at  work;  before  con 
sidering  these,  a  description  of  the  trouble  is  need 
ful.  Rigdon's  colleague,  Parley  Pratt,  another 
influential  Mormon  convert,  gives  this  account: — 
'  As  I  went  forth  among  the  different  branches 
some  very  strange  spiritual  operations  were  mani 
fested,  which  were  disgusting  rather  than  edifying. 
Some  persons  would  seem  to  swoon  away,  and 
make  unseemly  gestures,  and  be  drawn  or  dis 
figured  in  their  countenances.  Others  would  fall 
into  ecstasies,  and  would  be  drawn  into  contor 
tions,  cramps,  fits,  etc.  Others  would  seem  to 
have  visions  and  revelations,  which  were  not  edify 
ing,  which  were  not  congenial  to  the  doctrine 
and  spirit  of  the  gospel.  In  short,  a  false  and  lying 
spirit  seemed  to  be  creeping  into  the  Church.' 38 

A  general  reason  for  these  phenomena  was  the 
ubiquitous  revival.  In  New  York  State  the  condi- 

38 '  Autobiography,'  p.  65. 


266     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

tion  of  the  audience  at  the  protracted  meetings  is 
described  as  a  condition  of  panic."  In  the  West 
about  1800  the  movement  was  more  widespread 
and  more  severe.  '  It  was  not  confined  to  one 
denomination,'  says  the  historian,  'even  phlegmatic 
New  England  Presbyterians  of  the  Reserve  were 
influenced.40  Matters  went  so  far  that  the  convul 
sions  were  popularly  classified  into  the  falling, 
jerking,  rolling  and  dancing  varieties.  The  com 
monest  state  was  one  of  ecstasy,  a  loss  of  muscular 
power  and  of  consciousness  of  external  objects  like 
protracted  catalepsy.  The  most  alarming  manifes 
tation  was  the  'jerking  exercise'  in  which  several 
hundred  of  both  sexes  were  seized  with  involuntary 
contortions,  while  their  bodies  hurried  over  fallen 
trunks  or  pews  and  benches.  No  one  restrained 
them,  for  restraint  was  thought  to  be  resisting  the 
Spirit  of  God.  The  spasms  were  involuntary,  be 
cause  '  wicked  men  would  be  seized  while  guard 
ing  against  them  and  cursing  every  jerk.'41  Such 
were  the  more  remote  causes  of  the  later  mania,  for, 
in  the  same  place,  the  same  conditions  were  aroused 
by  the  frenzied  preaching  of  Rigdon. 

What  occurred  in  1830  was  stranger  than  the 
events  of  a  generation  before.  An  account  of  an 
eyewitness  presents  the  whole  gamut  of  abnormal 

89  According  to  Prof.  W.  H.  Brewer  of  Yale  University. 
*°  Howe,  p.  189.  4i  Howe,  p.  189. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  267 

psychology:4* — 'On  the  conversion  of  Rigdon,  a 
most  successful  starting  point  was  thought  to  have 
been  obtained.  Cowdery  and  his  associates  then  be 
gan  to  develop  the  peculiarities  of  the  new  imposi 
tion.  Scenes  of  the  most  wild,  frantic  and  horrible 
fanaticism  ensued.  They  pretended  that  the  power 
of  miracles  was  about  to  be  given  to  all  those  who 
embraced  the  new  faith,  and  commenced  communi 
cating  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  laying  their  hands  upon 
the  heads  of  the  converts,  which  operation,  at  first 
produced  an  instantaneous  prostration  of  body  and 
mind.  Many  would  fall  upon  the  floor,  where  they 
would  lie  for  a  long  time,  apparently  lifeless.  Thus 
they  continued  these  enthusiastic  exhibitions  for 
several  weeks.  The  fits  usually  came  on,  during  or 
after  their  prayer  meetings,  which  were  held  nearly 
every  evening. — The  young  men  and  women  were 
more  particularly  subject  to  this  delirium.  They 
would  exhibit  all  the  apish  actions  imaginable,  mak 
ing  the  most  ridiculous  grimaces,  creeping  upon 
their  hands  and  feet,  rolling  upon  the  frozen 

42  Ezra  Booth's  Letters  to  the  Rev.  Ira  Eddy  from  Nelson,  Portage 
County,  Ohio,  September,  1831 ;  published  in  the  Ohio  Star. 
These  letters  were  quoted  by  E.  D.  Howe  whose  book  '  Mormon- 
ism  Unveiled,'  was  attacked  by  Smith  in  '  Times  and  Seasons/ 
Volume  III.  But  the  letters,  although  written  by  a  'Jack- 
Mormon  '  have  never  been  impeached,  since  this  account  was 
corroborated  by  the  prophet  himself.  Compare  'Biographical 
Sketches,'  p.  171,  etc. 


268     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

ground,  go  through  with  all  the  Indian  modes  of 
warfare,  such  as  knocking  down,  scalping,  ripping 
open  and  tearing  out  the  bowels.  At  other  times, 
they  would  run  through  the  fields,  get  upon  stumps, 
preach  to  imaginary  congregations,  enter  the  water 
and  perform  all  the  ceremony  of  baptizing,  etc. 
Many  would  have  fits  of  speaking  all  the  different 
Indian  dialects,  which  none  could  understand. 
Again,  at  the  dead  hour  of  night,  the  young  men 
might  be  seen  running  over  the  fields  and  hills  in 
pursuit,  as  they  said,  of  the  balls  of  fire,  lights,  etc., 
which  they  saw  moving  through  the  atmosphere.' 43 
The  rest  of  the  account  may  be  condensed,  for 
the  subsequent  '  spiritual  phenomena ' — less  violent 
than  these,  took  place  under  Smith's  own  auspices. 
There  was  first  'the  gift  of  tongues,' — uncon 
scious  articulations  declared  by  Joseph  to  be  '  the 
pure  Adamic,'"  but  by  an  old  trapper  to  be  snatches 
of  Indian  dialects.*5  There  was  next  the  'gift  of 

43  Booth  said  these  accounts  were  from  his  own  observations  in 
the  Western  Reserve  or  from  testimonies  of  persons   who   still 
adhered  to  Mormonism. — Letter  in. 

44  Cannon,  p.  17. 

45 « \ve  will  first  notice  the  gifts  of  tongues,  exercised  by  some 
when  carried  away  in  the  spirit.  These  persons  were  apparently 
lost  to  all  surrounding  circumstances,  and  wrapt  up  in  the  contem 
plation  of  things,  and  in  communication  with  persons  not  present. 
They  articulated  sounds,  which  but  few  present  professed  to  un 
derstand  ;  and  those  few  declared  them  to  be  the  Indian  language. 
A  merchant,  who  had  formerly  been  a  member  of  the  Methodist 
society,  observed  he  had  formerly  traded  with  the  Indians,  and  he 
knew  it  to  be  their  dialect.' 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  269 

interpretation/46 — carried  away  in  the  spirit  the 
subject  would  profess  to  read  the  Bible  in  different 
languages.  There  was  also  the  'gift  of  prophecy,' 
— mounted  on  a  stump  the  ecstatic  would  fancy 
themselves  haranguing  their  red  brethren,  and  would 
imitate  the  Indian  in  look  and  manner.  Finally 
there  were  alleged  acts  of  clairvoyance, — young 
men  would  pretend  to  read  celestial  messages  on  the 
palms  of  their  hands  and  the  lids  of  their  Bibles.47 

46  Booth's  Letters : — 

«  Being  myself  present  on  one  of  these  occasions,  a  person  prof 
fered  his  services  as  my  interpreter,  and  translated  these  sounds  to 
me  which  were  unintelligible,  into  the  English  language.  One 
individual  could  read  any  chapter  of  the  Old  or  New  Testament, 
in  several  different  languages,  This  was  known  to  be  the  case  by 
a  person  who  professed  to  understand  those  languages.  In  the 
midst  of  this  delirium  they  would,  at  times,  fancy  themselves  ad 
dressing  a  congregation  of  their  red  brethren;  mounted  on  a 
stump,  or  the  fence,  or  from  some  elevated  situation,  would  ha 
rangue  their  assembly  until  they  had  convinced  or  converted 
them.  They  would  then  lead  them  into  the  water,  and  baptize 
them,  and  pronounce  their  sins  forgiven.  In  this  exercise,  some 
of  them  actually  went  into  the  water ;  and  in  the  water,  performed 
the  ceremony  used  in  baptizing.  These  actors  assumed  the  visage 
of  the  savage,  and  so  nearly  imitated  him,  not  only  in  language, 
but  in  gestures  and  actions,  that  it  seemed  the  soul  and  body  were 
completely  metamorphosed  into  the  Indian.  No  doubt  was  then 
entertained  but  that  was  an  extraordinary  work  of  the  Lord, 
designed  to  prepare  these  young  men  for  the  Indian  mission.' 

47  Booth's   Letters:  —  'Before  these  scenes    fully   commenced, 
however,   Cowdery   had   departed  for   the  country  inhabited  by 
the   Indians,  with  the   expectation  of  converting  them    to    Chris 
tianity   by    means  of  his   new    Bible,  and  miracles  which  he  was 
to  perform  among  them.       These    pretensions   appeared   to   have 


2/o    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Another  apostate,  eight  years  an  elder  among  the 
Mormonites,  has  given  an  account  of  similar  doings 
among  the  Saints  in  England.48  He  explains 
'  tongues '  as  due  to  ignorance,  excitement,  and  a 
lack  of  vocabulary.*9  Physiologically  considered, 
this  psychic  Volapuk  is  another  case  of  decentral 
ization:  the  higher  brain  centres  having  temporarily 
lost  their  sway,  there  ensues  a  loss  of  rational  self- 
taken  possession  of  the  minds  of  the  young  men  in  their  aspira 
tions.  Three  of  them  pretended  to  have  received  commissions  to 
preach,  from  the  skies,  after  having  jumped  into  the  air  as 
high  as  they  could.' 

48  Hawthornthwaite,  'Adventures  among  the  Mormons,'  1857 
pp.  88-91.  «At  a  meeting  in  Manchester  an  elder  shuts  his 
eyes  and  at  the  top  of  his  voice  exclaims : — '  Oh,  me,  sontra  von  te, 
par  las  a  te  se,  ter  mon  te  roy  ken ;  ran  passan  par  du  mon  te ! 
Kros  krassey  pron  proy  praddey,  sin  von  troo  ta  !  O  me,  sontrote 
krush  krammon  palassate  Mount  Zion  kron  cow  che  and  America 
pa  palassate  pau  pau  pu  pe  !  Sontro  von  teli  terattate  taw  1 '  This 
was  interpreted  as  an  exhortation  to  be  humble  and  obedient;  so 
was  another  «  gift  of  tongues '  where  a  strange  woman  came  in  and 
spoke  in  Welsh.' 

48  Hawthornthwaite  says,  '  Those  who  speak  in  tongues  are  gen 
erally  the  most  illiterate  among  the  Saints,  such  as  cannot  command 
words  as  quick  as  they  would  wish,  and  instead  of  waiting  for  a 
suitable  word  to  come  to  their  memories,  they  break  forth  in  the 
first  sounds  their  tongues  can  articulate,  no  matter  what  it  is. 
Thus — some  person  in  the  meeting  has  told  an  interesting  story 
about  Zion,  then  an  excitable  brother  gets  up  to  bear  his  "  testi 
mony,"  the  speed  of  speech  increases  with  the  interest  of  the  sub 
ject  :  "  Beloved  brethren  and  sisters,  I  rejoice,  and  my  heart  is 
glad  to  overflowing, — I  hope  to  go  to  Zion,  and  to  see  you  all  there, 
and  to — to — O,  me  sontro  von  te,  sontro  von  terre,  sontro  von  te. 
O  me  palassate  te,"  '  etc. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  271 

control.  In  general  the  psycho-physical  state  of 
the  Kirtland  convulsionists  was  that  to  be  found  in 
a  collection  of  religious  visionaries.60  One  young 
man  admitted  that  he  knew  not  what  he  did  for 
two  or  three  weeks.  The  general  mental  state  is 
typified  in  the  narrator's  case:  'When  I  embraced 
Mormonism,'  says  Booth,  '  I  conscientiously  be 
lieved  it  to  be  of  God.  The  impressions  of  my 
mind  were  deep  and  powerful,  and  my  feelings 
were  excited  to  a  degree  to  which  I  had  been  a 
stranger.  Like  a  ghost  it  haunted  me  by  night  and 
by  day,  until  I  was  mysteriously  hurried,  as  it  were, 
by  a  kind  of  necessity  into  the  vortex  of  delusion. 
—At  times  I  was  much  elated;  but  generally,  things 
in  prospect  were  the  greatest  stimulants  to  action.' 
To  turn  to  Smith's  connection  with  these  matters : 
if  he  was  the  originator  of  the  abnormal  perform 
ances  in  New  York,  he  was  only  the  director  of 
events  in  Ohio.  Of  the  Kirtland  branch,  he  says  in 
his  Journal,  'strange  notions  of  false  spirits  had 
crept  in  among  them.  I  soon  overcame  them  with 
some  wisdom.'51  Despite  this  superior  attitude, 
there  is  abundant  evidence  of  the  primitiveness  of 
his  own  notions;  he  held  nearly  the  animistic  view 

50  A  writer  in  the  North  British  Review,  77,  112,  in  explaining 
the  excesses  of  the  Mormonites,  draws  analogies  from  Hecker's 
'  Epidemics  of  the  Middle  Ages/  and  Wilkinson's,  '  Revival  in  its 
Physical,  Psychical  and  Religious  Aspects,'  1860. 

«  « Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  68. 


272     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

of  the  savage:53  to  him,  as  to  the  Indian  medicine 
man,  it  was  not  the  soul  of  the  sufferer  but  the  soul 
of  a  demon,  which  entered  in  and  caused  the  havoc. 
The  elements  of  such  belief,  as  sustained  by  pop 
ular  mythology,53  and  reinforced  by  a  literal  inter 
pretation  of  Scripture,  are  present  in  Mother  Smith's 
account.  Speaking  of  the  Kirtland  branch  of  nearly 
one  hundred  members  she  cites, 

'  The  singular  power,  which  manifested  itself  among 
them  in  strange  contortions  of  the  visage,  and  sud 
den  unnatural  exertions  of  the  body.  This  they  sup 
posed  to  be  a  display  of  the  power  of  God.  Shortly 
after  Joseph  arrived,  he  called  the  Church  together,  in 
order  to  show  them  the  difference  between  the  Spirit  of 
God,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Devil.  He  said,  if  a  man 
arose  in  meeting  to  speak,  and  was  seized  with  a  kind  of 
paroxysm,  that  drew  his  face  and  limbs,  in  a  violent  and 
unnatural  manner,  which  made  him  appear  to  be  in 
pain ;  and  if  he  gave  utterance  to  strange  sounds,  which 
were  incomprehensible  to  his  audience,  they  might  rely 
upon  it,  that  he  had  the  spirit  of  the  devil.  But  on  the 
contrary,  when  a  man  speaks  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  he 
speaks  from  the  abundance  of  his  heart — his  mind  is 
filled  with  intelligence,  and  even  should  he  be  excited,  it 
does  not  cause  him  to  do  anything  ridiculous  or  un 
seemly.  He  then  called  upon  one  of  the  brethren  to 
speak,  who  arose  and  made  the  attempt,  but  was  imme 
diately  seized  with  a  kind  of  spasm,  which  drew  his  face, 

62  Herbert  Spencer,  'Principles  of  Sociology,'  I,  238. 

63  Compare   Eggleston,  pp.    16-23,  'The   evils   angels     .     .     . 
descended  from  hobgoblins.' 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  273 

arms,  and  fingers  in  a  most  astonishing  manner.  Hyrum, 
by  Joseph's  request,  laid  hands  on  the  man,  whereupon 
he  sunk  back  in  a  state  of  complete  exhaustion.  Joseph 
then  called  upon  another  man  to  speak,  who  stood  lean 
ing  in  an  open  window.  This  man  also  attempted  to 
speak,  but  was  thrown  forward  into  the  house,  prostrate, 
unable  to  utter  a  syllable.  He  was  administered  to,  and 
the  same  effects  followed  as  in  the  first  instance.'  M 

Smith  the  opportunist  again  stands  forth.  Out 
of  the  morbid  anatomy  of  his  followers  he  drew 
hieratic  authority  to  himself.  He  warns  the  Saints 
against  being  'seduced  by  evil  spirits,  or  doctrines 
of  devils';55  and  then  goes  on  to  inquire:  — 

'  Who  can  drag  into  daylight  and  develop  the  hid 
den  mysteries  of  the  false  spirits  that  so  frequently 
are  made  manifest  among  the  Latter-day  Saints  ? 
We  answer  that  no  man  can  do  this  without  the 
Priesthood,  and  having  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  by 
which  spirits  are  governed.'56 

In  the  meanwhile,  through  these  signs  and 
wonders  in  Ohio,  and  through  the  exodus  of  Saints 
from  New  York57  and  the  surrounding  branches,  the 
Church  numbered  two  thousand.  The  fourth  con- 


54  «  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  171-2. 

65 «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  49. 

56 « Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  746. 

57  Compare  '  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  40, '  A  Revela 
tion  to  the  churches  in  New  York,  commanding  them  to  remove 
to  Ohio.' 


274    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

ference  was  held  at  Kirtland  and  several  brethren 
were  called  by  revelation  to  the  office  of  High 
Priest.58  There  now  occurred  further  manifesta 
tions  of  the  prophet's  influence.  June  4th,  1831, 
was  set  apart  for  '  mighty  works.1  The  Saints  had 
been  prepared  by  fasting  and  prayer,  and  by  the 
prophecy  that  they  would  see  the  Lord  face  to 
face.59  It  is  not  asserted  that  the  theophany  came 
to  pass,  but  other  things  did.  By  long  speaking 
Smith  and  some  others  became  much  excited,  hands 
were  then  laid  on  Elder  Wright  who  arose  and 
'  presented  a  pale  countenance,  a  fierce  look,  with 
his  arms  extended,  and  his  hands  cramped  back, 
the  whole  system  agitated,  and  a  very  unpleasant 
object  to  look  upon.'60  Nevertheless,  the  success  in 
producing  the  ecstasy  was  not  uniform.  Some  of 
the  candidates  felt  the  weight  of  Joseph's  hands 
thrice  before  the  thing  was  rightly  done;  finally 
the  work  got  beyond  his  control  and,  as  an  eyewit 
ness  declared, — 'then  ensued  a  scene,  of  which 
you  can  form  no  adequate  conception;  and  which, 
I  would  forbear  relating,  did  not  the  truth  require 
it.  The  elder  moved  upon  the  floor,  his  legs  in- 

68 '  Handbook  of  Reference,'  p.  40. 

59 « Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  720,  'This  is  the  word  of  the  Lord  to 
us ;  on  condition  of  our  obedience  He  has  promised  us  great  things  ; 
yea,  even  a  visit  from  the  heavens  to  honor  us  with  His  own 
presence.' 

60  Booth,  Letter  iv. 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  275 

dining  to  a  bend;  one  shoulder  elevated  above  the 
other,  upon  which  the  head  seemed  disposed  to  re 
cline,  his  arms  partly  extended;  his  hands  partly 
clenched;  his  mouth  partly  open,  and  contracted  in 
the  shape  of  an  italic  O.' 

Without  prolonging  the  agony  of  quotation  it 
is  happily  evident  that,  within  two  months,  Smith 
had  learned  how  far  to  go  in  these  matters.  On 
August  3d,  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple,  as 
one  of  the  number  relates,  '  hundreds  of  Elders 
spoke  in  tongues,  but  many  of  them,  being  young 
in  the  Church,  and  never  having  witnessed  the 
manifestation  of  this  gift  before,  felt  a  little  alarmed. 
This  caused  the  Prophet  Joseph  Smith  to  pray  the 
Lord  to  withhold  the  spirit.'61 

Tracing  the  inception  and  development  of  obsess 
ion  in  the  Mormon  Church,  it  may  safely  be  said 
that,  as  an  exorcist,  Smith  at  last  reached  the  com 
mon  sense  standpoint  of  repression.  It  was  not  so 
with  his  followers.  From  the  acts  of  the  Mormon 
apostles,  at  home  and  abroad,  a  complete  popular 
demonology  might  be  reconstructed.  A  few  ex 
amples  may  be  cited  to  show  that,  although  the 
prophet  had  ordained  and  dispatched  his  mission 
aries,62  he  exercised  little  control  over  their  doings. 

61  Benjamin  Brown,  p.  II. 

62  Compare  '  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  54, — '  Let  them 
go  two  by  two,  my  servant  Lyman  (W.)  and  my  servant  John 
(C.) ' — and  twenty-six  others. 


276    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

But  it  is  better  worth  while  to  note  how  all  this  was 
preparatory  to  a  wider  role,  how  it  all  played  into 
the  hands  of  Joseph  the  faith  healer.  From  the  de 
lusions  of  the  patients  and  the  misconceptions  of 
the  operators,  one  can  get  an  idea  of  the  material 
there  was  to  work  upon. 

To  take  certain  typical  cases,  in  their  order:  Parley 
Pratt  narrates  that  in  1836,  near  Toronto,  Canada,  he 
found  a  woman  prostrated  by  some  power  and  in  an 
agony  of  distress.  She  was  drawn  and  twisted  in 
every  limb,  and,  despite  repressive  measures,  would 
be  so  drawn  out  of  all  shape  as  to  only  touch  the  bed 
with  her  heels  and  head.  She  often  cried  out  that 
she  could  see  two  devils  in  human  form,  who 
would  bruise  and  pinch  her,  and  she  could  hear 
them  talk.  But  as  the  bystanders  could  not  see 
them,  but  only  the  effects  they  did  not  know  what 
to  think.  'Finally,'  says  Pratt,  'she  runs  to  me  for 
she  said  she  knew  she  could  be  healed  if  she  could 
but  get  a  sight  of  the  man  of  God.68 

How  the  Mormon  leaders  lugged  in  an  enginery 
of  spirits  to  explain  a  group  of  morbid  symptoms  is 
further  exemplified  in  Elder  Kimball's  letter  of 
1837,  on  a  'singular  circumstance.'6*  The  scene 
was  laid  in  Lancashire,  England;  when  Kimball 

63  Pratt,  pp.  167-8. 

«4  Elders  Journal,  Vol.  I,  No.  I ;  compare  Millennial 
Star,  16,  31,  and  also  Kimball's  Journal,  p.  20, — 'Brother 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  277 

attempted  to  lay  hands  on  a  brother  afflicted  with  evil 
spirits,  he  began  to  '  tremble  and  reel  to  and  fro,  and 
fell  on  the  floor  like  a  dead  man.'  Then,  as  another 
elder  explains,  'the  devils  were  exceeding  angry 
because  we  attempted  to  cast  them  out;  they  made 
a  powerful  attempt  upon  Elder  Kimball  and  struck 
him  senseless.  But  we  laid  our  hands  on  him,  he 
recovered  his  strength  in  part,  and  we  could  very 
sensibly  hear  the  evil  spirits  rage  and  foam  out  their 
shame.  Br  Kimball  was  quite  weak  for  a  day  or 
two  after.' 

The  medieval  point  of  view,  the  utter  ignorance 
of  natural  causes,  the  reading  in  of  preconceived 
notions  are  all  to  be  found  in  the  parallel  accounts.65 

Russell  called  on  Elder  Hyde  and  me  to  pray  for  him,  for 
he  was  so  afflicted  with  evil  spirits  that  he  could  not  live  long 
until  he  should  obtain  relief,  we  arose  and  laid  hands  on  him  and 
prayed.  While  I  was  thus  engaged,  I  was  struck  with  great  force 
by  some  invisible  power  and  fell  senseless  on  the  floor  as  if  I  had 
been  shot,  and  the  first  thing  I  recollected  was,  that  I  was  sup 
ported  by  Brothers  Hyde  and  Russell,  who  were  beseeching  a 
throne  of  grace  on  my  behalf.  They  then  laid  me  on  the  bed,  but 
my  agony  was  so  great  that  I  could  not  endure,  and  I  was  obliged 
to  get  out,  and  fell  on  my  knees  and  began  to  pray.  I  then  sat  on 
the  bed  and  could  distinctly  see  the  evil  spirits,  who  foamed  and 
gnashed  their  teeth  upon  us.  We  gazed  upon  them  about  an  hour 
and  a  half.  ...  I  perspired  exceedingly,  my  clothes  as  wet  as 
if  I  had  been  taken  out  of  the  river.  .  .  .  Weakness  of  body, 
from  shock.' 

M  Woodruff,  «  Journal,'  p.  85,  gives  a  third  account  of  the  above 
episode.  He  says,  in  1840:  — « I  had  only  just  lain  down,  when  it 
seemed  as  if  a  legion  of  devils  made  war  upon  us,  to  destroy  us, 


278     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Moreover  the  operators  were  but  once  on  the  out 
skirts  of  the  truth, — that  the  mental  influence  of  the 
bystanders  has  something  to  do  with  the  matter. 
Curiously  enough  the  latter  instance  happened  in 
the  year  in  which  a  London  physician  was  utilizing 
in  his  practice  the  suggestive  side  of  mesmerism.6* 
In  1839,  in  his  mission  to  England,  Elder  Woodruff 
tried  to  cast  a  devil  from  a  woman,  'but,'  he  ex 
plains,  '  the  unbelief  of  the  wicked  present  was  so 
great  that  we  could  not  cast  the  devil  out  of  her, 
and  she  raged  worse  than  ever;  when  the  room 
was  cleared  I  succeeded,  she  was  cured  and  fell 
asleep.'67 

It  was  by  virtue  of  '  faith '  that  Smith  affected 
some  alleviations  of  non-organic  troubles;  he  had 

and  we  were  struggling  for  our  lives  in  the  midst  of  this  warfare 
of  evil  spirits  until  we  were  nearly  choked  to  death.' — This  scene 
is  described  a  third  time,  with  later  embellishments,  when  Hyde 
writes  to  Kimball,  May  22d,  1856: — 'Every  circumstance  is  fresh 
in  my  recollection.  After  you  were  overcome  by  them  and  had 
fallen,  their  awful  rush  upon  me  with  knives,  threats,  imprecations 
and  hellish  grins  convinced  me  that  they  were  no  friends  of  mine. 
While  you  were  apparently  senseless  and  lifeless  on  the  floor 
...  I  stood  between  you  and  the  devils  and  fought  them  and 
contended  against  them  face  to  face.  .  .  .  The  last  imp  turned 
and  said,  "I  never  said  anything  against  you" — I  replied — 
"  Depart" — and  the  room  was  clear.' 

M  Dr.  Elliotson;  compare  Moll,  p.  361. 

•' '  Journal,'  p.  76.  Brigham  Young,  « Journal,'  p.  104,  alleges 
the  following  as  results  of  these  '  miracles  ' : — «  We  landed  in  1840, 
strangers  and  penniless.  When  we  left,  in  less  than  two  years,  we 
had  baptized  between  seven  and  eight  thousand  souls.' 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  279 

learned  by  experience  the  prime  value  of  the  sub 
ject's  attitude  of  trust.  It  was  much  less  so  with 
his  ministers  of  healing.  In  1844,  in  Virginia,68 
after  a  Sunday  service  of  baptism  and  confirmation, 
six  elders  had  a  '  contest  with  evil  spirits.'  It  was 
presumably  a  case  of  hysterics,  which  ultimately 
spread  and  alternately  affected  three  girls  for  thirty- 

es «  Early  Scenes  from  Church  History,'  by  H.  G.  B.,  pp.  13-15  :— 
'  There  lay  the  girl  stretched  upon  a  bed  apparently  lifeless,  with 
out  breath  or  motion.  ...  As  soon  as  I  opened  my  mouth,  I 
began  to  cast  a  devil  out  of  her,  which  was  farthest  from  my 
thoughts  before  I  commenced.  I  commanded,  .  .  .  the  evil 
spirit  immediately  departed  from  her,  she  being  restored  to  her 
normal  condition,  seemingly  as  well  as  ever.  Not  ten  minutes 
after,  the  same  evil  spirit  entered  another  girl.  .  .  .  Elder 
Hamilton  was  mouth  with  myself  in  casting  it  out.  ...  A 
third  young  sister  was  attacked  ...  in  the  same  way.  .  .  . 
This  third  one  was  no  sooner  rid  of  the  evil  spirit,  than  it  returned 
and  took  possession,  the  second  time,  of  the  one  last  before  relieved 
of  its  power ;  and  when  it  was  cast  out  from  this  one,  it  took  pos 
session  of  the  third  one  again,  and  so  on  alternately,  ...  for 
three  or  four  times.  But  the  spirit  never  returned  the  second  time 
to  the  first  sister  that  was  attacked  that  evening.  At  the  end  of 
two  or  three  hours,  we  separated  the  two  girls,  ...  as  far  as 
we  could.  .  .  .  There  were  six  of  us  in  attendance.  .  .  . 
While  possessed  with  this  evil  spirit,  the  girls  would  sometimes  lay 
in  a  trance,  motionless,  and  apparently  without  breathing,  till  we 
were  ready  to  conclude  they  were  dead,  then  they  would  come  to 
and  speak  and  sing  in  tongues,  and  talk  about  Priesthood  and  the 
endowments.  At  other  times  they  would  choke  up,  ceasing  to 
breathe  until  they  were  black  in  the  face,  and  we  thought  they 
would  surely  die.  Sometimes  they  would  froth  at  the  mouth  and 
act  like  they  were  in  a  fit.  If  standing  upon  their  feet  when  taken, 
they  would  fall  to  the  floor  and  act  like  they  were  struggling  for 
life  with  some  unseen  power.  Read  Mark  18  :  14-29.' 


28o    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

six  hours.  The  narrator,  at  first,  blundered  into  suc 
cess, — without  thinking,  he  commanded  the  devil 
to  depart,  and  the  girl  was  restored  to  her  normal 
condition.  When  the  hysteria  became  collective, 
and  the  imps  seemed  to  play  tag  from  one  poor 
creature  to  another,  the  Mormon  elders  were  as 
helpless  as  were  the  Puritan  divines  before  the 
Salem  witches. 

One  more  example  will  show  the  aboriginality  of 
the  Latter-day  Saints'  belief.  Elder  Hill,  while  a 
missionary  among  the  Shoshone  and  Bannock 
Indians,  found  eight  or  nine  of  them  possessed  of 
the  evil  one.69  In  attempting  to  bestow  upon  them 
'baptism  for  the  health,'  he  found  that  they  had 
been  practicing  too  much  witchcraft  and  black  art. 

Without  entering  upon  the  psychology  of  the 

M '  Faith  Promoting  Series,  No.  2,'  pp.  91-2,  'Baptism  for  the 
Health ' : — «  There  were  in  this  county  eight  or  nine  who  were 
possessed  of  the  evil  one,  or  something  of  that  kind.  The  first  of 
these  was  a  large,  strong  woman.  An  Indian  is  no  more  afraid  of 
water  than  a  duck  is,  but  when  I  raised  this  woman  out  of  the 
water  she  wilted  and  dropped  on  my  arm,  as  lifeless,  to  all  appear 
ance,  as  if  she  had  been  dead  a  week. — The  old  chief  told  me  that 
these  eight  or  nine  cases  had  been  practicing  their  witchcraft  and 
working  with  their  black  art  so  much  that  he  did  not  expect  any 
thing  else  of  them. — Some  of  those  that  were  operated  upon  in  this 
way  were  men,  and  when  I  would  raise  them  out  of  the  water  they 
would  hang  upon  my  arm  breathless  and  as  limber  as  a  half  filled 
sack  of  wheat.  .  .  .  The  Lamanites  are  very  much  like  other 
people :  some  of  them  have  got  faith  and  will  be  healed  of  any 
sickness,  no  matter  how  severe.' 


JOSEPH  THE  EXORCIST  281 

Lamanites,  or  citing  more  of  these  'early  scenes  in 
church  history,' 70  one  can  understand  how  a  regular 
Mormon  demonology  came,  after  a  manner,  to  be 

70  Benjamin  Brown,  in  «  Testimonies  for  the  Truth,'  in  a  later 
strange  account  of  an  exorcism,  incidentally  touches  on  the  signific 
ance  of  mental  suggestion.  Speaking  of  the  Pomphret  Branch 
where  a  '  sister  was  possessed,'  he  says : — «  Directly  we  entered  her 
room,  she  called  out,  "  Take  your  shoes  from  off  your  feet,  this  is 
Holy  Ground,  the  Prophet  Elijah  is  here."  I  saw  the  spirit  by 
which  she  was  influenced,  so  I  walked  up  to  her  and  said,  "  I  am 
a  servant  of  the  Lord,  I  obey  no  command  of  the  Devil."  She  be 
came  uproarious  directly  .  .  .  she  arose  from  the  bed,  on  her 
feet,  without  apparently  bending  a  joint  in  her  body,  stiff  as  a  rod 
of  iron.  [After  praying.]  The  evil  spirit  then  came  out  full  of 
fury,  and  as  he  passed  by  one  of  the  brethren  seized  him  by  both 
arms,  and  gripped  them  violently,  and  passing  towards  me,  some 
thing  which  by  the  feel  appeared  like  a  man's  hand,  grasped  me  by 
both  sides  of  my  face,  and  attempted  to  pull  me  sideways  to  the 
ground,  but  the  hold  appearing  to  slip  I  recovered  my  balance 
immediately.  My  face  was  sore  for  some  days  after  this.  The 
other  brother  that  was  seized  was  lame  for  a  week  afterwards.  As 
soon  as  this  was  done,  the  sister  partially  recovered,  so  much  so 
that  she  obeyed  anything  I  chose  to  tell  her  to  do,  whereas  be 
fore  she  was  perfectly  ungovernable.  Still  she  seemed  to  be  sur 
rounded  by  some  evil  influence.  This  puzzled  us,  for  we  knew  the 
spirit  was  cast  out,  but  we  learned  the  cause  afterwards.  Just  then 
it  was  revealed  to  us  that  if  we  went  to  sleep,  the  Devil  would 
enter  one  of  the  brethren.  My  nephew,  Melvin  Brown,  neglected 
the  warning,  and  composed  himself  to  sleep  in  an  armchair,  while 
we  were  still  watching  with  the  sister.  Directly  he  did  so,  the 
Devil  entered  into  him,  and  he  became  black  in  the  face  and 
nearly  suffocated.  He  awoke  immediately,  and  motioned  for  us  to 
lay  hands  on  him,  for  he  could  not  speak.  We  did  so  and  the  evil 
spirit  then  left  him,  and  he  recovered  at  once.' 

11 «  Address,'  p.  35. 

™  *  Journal,'  p.  84. 


282     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

formulated.  Thus  Whitmer  avowed,  '  False  spirits, 
which  come  as  an  Angel  of  Light,  are  abroad  in  the 
world,' 71  and  Woodruff  announced, — '  after  a  pow 
erful  attack  of  the  enemy,— I  estimate  one  hundred 
evil  spirits  to  every  person  on  earth  whose  whole 
mission  and  labor  is  to  lead  men  to  do  evil.'71 


CHAPTER  IX 
JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER 


CHAPTER  IX 

JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER 

MORMON  demonology  led  up  to  Mormon  faith 
healing.  If  the  Saints  cast  out  devils  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  why  could  they  not  cast  out  diseases  ? 
They  tried  the  experiment  as  early  as  1834.  '  When 
the  cholera  first  broke  out  in  the  camp,'  says  Kim- 
ball,  '  John  S.  Carter  was  the  first  who  went  for 
ward  to  rebuke  it,  but  himself  was  immediately 
slain.  .  .  .  Even  brother  Joseph,  seeing  the  suf 
ferings  of  his  brethren,  stepped  forward  to  rebuke 
the  destroyer,  but  was  immediately  seized  with  the 
disease  himself.' '  This  incident  is  significant,  it 
shows  up  Smith  in  a  new  light.  The  prophet  of 
the  restoration  of  gifts,2  was  now  in  the  clutches  of 
popular  demand;  he  was  a  minister  of  healing,  not 
because  he  knew  any  medicine,  but  because  of  the 
expectations  of  his  adherents.  However  it  is  not 

1 « Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  839.  Compare  also  Brown,  p.  45  : — 
When  one  elder  ate  mushrooms,  president  Richards  « rebuked  the 
poison.' 

9  Compare  « Book  of  Commandments,'   Chapter   26  :    <  Require 
not  miracles,  except  casting  out  devils  ;    healing  the  sick  ;   and 
against  poisonous  serpents ;  and  against  deadly  poisons.' 
285 


286    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

entirely  fair  to  make  Smith  a  physician  in  spite  of 
himself:  notwithstanding  early  failure,  through  ig 
norance  and  overconfidence,  he  was  not  always 
unsuccessful  in  the  curative  art. 

Circumstances  did  not  always  get  the  better  of 
him;  within  ten  years  he  had  learned  how  to  allevi 
ate  considerable  suffering,  in  the  sphere  of  non- 
organic  troubles.  It  was  his  later  limitation  to  dis 
orders  of  this  character  which  goes  far  to  prove 
that,  somehow  or  other,  he  had  gained  a  crude  but 
real  knowledge  of  mental  healing.  What  were  the 
sources  of  his  knowledge  ?  At  first  glance  they  ap 
pear  to  be  borrowed.  Like  other  divine  healers, 
male  and  female  after  their  kind,  the  head  of 
this  Latter-day  Church  had  his  body  physician. 
Dr.  John  C.  Bennett  was  in  good  standing  among 
the  Saints  for  at  least  eight  years;  if  he  was  not  a 
quack,  he  was  of  the  old  school;  he,  then,  may  have 
given  to  Joseph  a  smattering  of  medical  lore,  but  as 
to  technical  suggestive  therapeutics  he  was  decades 
behind  the  times.3 

The  real  origin  of  Joseph's  faith  healing  is  at- 

3  Bennett  signed  himself  M.  D.,  and  a  member  of  the  Medical 
Convention  of  Illinois ;  in  1841  he  was  said  to  have  been  «  favor 
ably  known  for  upwards  of  eight  years  by  some  of  the  authorities 
of  the  Church.'  The  Warsaw  Signal  said  he  came  to  Missouri 
'  followed  by  evil  report.'  Bennett  himself  has  something  to  say 
against  the  'empirical  prescriptions  of  charlatan  practitioners.' 
•Times  and  Seasons,'  I,  174;  2,  432. 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       287 

/.,,-'> 
tributable  to  the  usual  mixture  of   heredity  and 

religion.  His  father  contended  for  '  the  ancient 
order  of  things,'  but,  when  his  children  needed 
'doctoring,'  sent  them  to  his  wife;  she  in  turn,  as 
'  Mother  in  Israel '  threw  much  physic  at  the  suffer 
ing  Saints.*  And,  outside  the  Smith  family,  Mor 
mon  medicine  was  not  one  whit  ahead  of  the 
kitchen-physic  of  Puritan  days;5  indeed  the  ancient 
doctrine  of  signatures — the  theory  of  correspond 
ences  between  drug  and  disease — was  actually  set 
forth  in  mystic  fashion.6  Finally  an  editorial  in  the 
Times  and  Seasons,  recommended  Indian  herbs  as 
more  natural  remedies  than  physicians'  prescrip 
tions.7 

Again,  all  these  notions  appeared  in  religious 
guise  among  Joseph's  progenitors.  His  mother's 
brother,  Jason  Mack,  was  the  colonial  medical  par 
son  redevivus.  About  1776  he  was  called  a  Seeker 
and  believed  that  by  prayer  and  faith  the  gifts  of 
the  gospel,  enjoyed  by  the  ancient  disciples,  might 
be  attained;  in  a  letter  to  his  brother,  dated  1835,  he 
wrote:— 'But  last,  though  not  least,  let  me  not 
startle  you  when  I  say,  that,  according  to  my  early 


*«  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  57,  171. 

6  Compare  Eggleston,  Chapter  the  Second, — Concerning  Medi 
cal  Notions  at  the  Period  of  Settlement. 

6  Compare  The  Star  in  the  East,  published  in  Boston,  1846. 
7 '  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  736. 


288     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

adopted  principles  of  the  power  of  faith,  the  Lord 
has,  in  His  exceeding  kindness,  bestowed  upon  me 
the  gift  of  healing  by  the  prayer  of  faith,  and  the 
use  of  such  simple  means  as  seem  congenial  to  the 
human  system.  The  first  of  my  peculiar  success  in 
this  way  was  twelve  years  since,  and  from  that  date 
I  have  had  little  rest.  .  .  .  And  when  the 
learned  infidel  has  declared  with  sober  face,  time 
and  again,  that  disease  had  obtained  such  an  ascend 
ancy  that  death  could  be  resisted  no  longer,  that  the 
victim  must  wither  beneath  his  potent  arm,  I  have 
seen  the  almost  lifeless  clay  slowly  but  surely  re 
suscitated,  and  revive,  till  the  pallid  monster  fled  so 
far  that  the  patient  was  left  in  the  full  bloom  of 
vigorous  health.' 8 

Smith's  uncle  practicing  faith  healing  on  his  semi- 
communistic  farm  in  1823,  doubtless  led  his  nephew 
to  have  a  try  at  the  same  thing;  but  with  the  latter 
there  was  greater  promise  of  results.  In  the  first 
place,  the  public  was  looking  for  wonders  of  heal 
ing.  The  adjacent  Oneida  Community  of  Perfec 
tionists  announced,  somewhat  later,  cures  by  faith;9 
but  already  western  New  York  was  thoroughly  im 
pregnated  with  restorationist  views.  In  fact,  the 
Irvingites  sent  a  deputation  to  Smith,  to  express 

« <  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  21,  53. 

9  Compare  Charles  Nordhoff,  '  Communistic  Societies  of  the 
United  States,'  New  York,  1875. 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       289 

sympathy  because  of  his  assertion  of  the  perpetuity 
of  miracles  in  the  Church.10  Furthermore,  Joseph 
was  bound  to  succeed  in  his  new  role,  because  he 
possessed  a  credulous  clientage.  Among  his  fol 
lowers  the  examples  of  divine  healing  were  as 
numerous  as  they  were  dubious.  In  particular,  the 
Faith  Promoting  Series,  although  hardly  to  be  con 
sidered  a  literary  source,  is  nevertheless  a  perfect 
mine  of  the  marvelous,  and  out  of  these  '  serpentine 
windings  of  human  life,' — to  use  Joseph's  phrase, 
it  is  possible  to  extract  some  pertinent  facts. 

Behind  the  apparatus  of  holy  oil,  consecrated 
flannels  and  the  like,  there  is  a  dim  apprehension  of 
the  power  of  mental  suggestion.  Thus  faith  is  de 
manded  of  both  patient  and  bystander.  'The  Lord 
wants  the  meek  and  humble,'  says  Benjamin  Brown, 
'  many  come  with  their  hearts  buckled  up  to  the 
highest  point  of  resistance,  bitterly  opposed  to  the 
truths  of  the  Church, — and  then  require  a  miracle.' " 
Again  there  is  demanded  laying  on  of  hands  with 
vocal,  or  with  silent  prayer.  Expressed  technically, 
this  is  verbal  or  unconscious  suggestion,  which  com 
bined  with  the  subject's  expectation,  produces  effects 
varying  with  the  fancy  of  the  individual.12  While 

10McClintock  and  Strong,  6,  630.  Compare  Orson  Pratt,  'The 
Necessity  of  Miracles.' 

11  'Testimonies,'  p.  12. 

12  Compare  C.   Lloyd  Tuckey,  '  Psycho-Therapeutics  or  Treat 
ment  by  Hypnotism,'  New  York,  1899,  P-  747- 


2QO    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Elder  Brown  was  praying  over  a  man  stricken  with 
palsy — 'a  warning  influence,  such  as  he  had  never 
felt  before,  extended  down  his  palsied  side.13  Again 
Philo  Dibble  narrates,  how  when  Brother  Newell 
Knight  laid  his  hands  on  his  head,  but  never  spoke, — 

'  I  felt  the  spirit  resting  upon  me  at  the  crown  of 
my  head  before  his  hand  touched  me,  and  I  knew 
immediately  that  I  was  going  to  be  healed.  It 
seemed  to  form  like  a  ring  under  the  skin,  and  fol 
lowed  down  my  body.  When  the  ring  came  to 
the  wound,  another  ring  formed  around  the  first 
bullet  hole,  also  the  second  and  third.  Then  a  ring 
formed  on  each  shoulder  and  on  each  hip,  and  fol 
lowed  down  to  the  ends  of  my  fingers  and  toes  and 
left  me.'14 

How  transitory  were  these  '  cures '  is  exempli 
fied  in  the  very  case  of  the  above  operator.  When 
Knight  was  dying,  January  nth,  1847,  his  wife  told 
how  'the  elders  came  frequently  and  prayed  for 
him.  After  each  administration  he  would  rally 

13  *  Testimonies,'  p.  34. 

14  G.  Q.  Cannon,  « My  First  Mission,'  p.  32.     Compare   Philo 
Dibble's  '  Narrative,'  p.  84,  '  I  was   wounded  by  the  mob  with  an 
ounce  ball  and  two  buck  shot  in  the  stomach  and  bled  internally. 
Brother  Newell  Knight  laid  his  right  hand  on  my  head,  but  never 
spoke.'     Compare  also  Knight,  'Journal,'  p.  81,  'I  drew  the  bed 
curtain  with  one  hand  and  laid  the  other  upon  his  head,  praying 
secretly  in  his  behalf;  he  told  me  that  as  soon  as  I  placed  my  hand 
upon  his  head,  the  pain  and  soreness  seemed  gradually  to  move  as 
before  as  a  power  driving  it,  until  in  a  few  minutes  it  left  his  body.' 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       291 

and  be  at  ease  for  a  short  time  and  then  relapse 
again  into  suffering.'15  That  such  divine  heal 
ing  presented  the  usual  dangers  was  to  be  ex 
pected,  when  one  only  considers  the  delicate  and 
elusive  reactions  of  mental  suggestion.  So  Elder 
Brown,  when  standing  by  a  '  possessed  sister,'  as 
serted  '  I  knew  the  answer  she  was  going  to  give, 
for  1  was  possessed  by  a  similar  spirit.'  How  the 
Mormons,  despite  their  '  silent  treatment,'  slid  by  the 
truth  of  the  force  of  auto-suggestion  is  shown  in 
their  attempts  at  explanation.  Brown  himself,  raised 
up  from  a  seeming  deathbed  by  the  prophet,  asks 
the  sceptical  reader: — 'Was  it  the  power  of  the  im 
agination  over  the  body  that  cured  me,  when  I  did 
not  even  hear  Joseph's  voice,  or  know  that  any 
operation  on  my  behalf  was  going  on,  until  I  found 
myself  well?'18 

Mormon  ignorance  of  elementary  psychic  phen 
omena  naturally  got  them  into  trouble.  The  mis 
chief  that  one  man  could  do  is  exemplified  in  the 
preposterous  claims  of  Brown.  Shortly  before  the 
time  he  tried  to  exorcise  the  possessed  sister,  he  as 
serted,  'I  cure  a  man  with  a  skull  crushed  by  a 
tree;  I  cure  a  woman  of  cancer,  she  said  the  cancer 
worms  felt  like  a  thousand  gimlets  boring  into  her 
brain.' 17  The  deadly  tendencies  of  Mormon  faith 

15  'Journal,'  p.  93.  16  '  Journal,'  pp.  18,  19. 

11  'Journal,'  p.  12. 


292    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

healing  were  recognized  by  their  contemporaries. 
In  Batavia,  New  York,  in  1841,  '  after  healing  a  deaf 
and  dumb  child,  the  enemies  of  truth,'  says  Thomp 
son,  '  are  doing  their  utmost  to  make  people  believe 
that  no  miracle  has  been  wrought.'18  In  1833,  the 
Western  Monitor  of  Fayette,  Missouri,  asks:  '  What 
would  be  the  fate  of  our  lives  and  property,  in  the 
hands  of  jurors  and  witnesses,  who  do  not  blush  to 
declare,  and  would  not  upon  occasion  hesitate  to 
swear  that  they  have  wrought  miracles,  and  have 
been  the  subjects  of  miraculous  and  supernatural 
cures?'19  In  England  the  missionaries  of  healing 
called  out  a  more  legal,  if  not  a  more  determined 
opposition.80  It  was  Elder  Richards  who  exclaimed, 
1  How  absurd  to  have  no  other  resource  when  ill 
but  a  physician.'  While  on  the  British  mission,  he 
advertised  'Bones  set  through  Faith  in  Christ,'  and 
Elder  Phillips  made  this  additional  statement: 
'While  commanding  the  bones,  they  came  to 
gether,  making  a  noise  like  the  crushing  of  an  old 
basket.' 21  Along  with  charlatanry  among  the  priest 
hood,  there  was  fatal  credulity  among  the  laity. 

18  'Times  and  Seasons,'  2,  349,  516. 

19  Quoted  in  '  Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  833,  as  a  '  Proclamation  of 
the  Mob.' 

20  Compare  Manchester   Examiner  and  Times,  December  22d, 
1856,  on  the  Rochdale  Miracle,  also  the  pamphlets : — 'Warning  to  his 
Parishioners  by  a  Country  Clergyman ' ;  <  Failure  of  an  Ordained 
Priest,'  etc. 

81  Millennial  Star,  12,  143. 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       293 

Lorenzo  Snow,  writing  from  London  in  1841,  said 
of  Elizabeth  Morgan,  before  her  death :  'She  con 
tinually  expressed  a  wish  that  no  doctor  should  ad 
minister  her  medicines;  and  particularly  requested 
that  no  one  should  cast  any  reflection  upon  her 
dear  husband  and  children  because  no  doctor  had 
been  employed,  for  she  wanted  no  physician  but  the 
Lord.' » 

The  fatuity  of  the  Mormon  missionaries  is  patent 
in  their  official  organ ;  the  Millennial  Star  of  Liver 
pool  cites  a  case  of  'cancer  in  the  heart  miraculously 
cured  by  baptism';  it  gives,  at  the  same  time,  a 
notice  of  Elder  Hyde's  death  through  the  same 
disease. 

Things  were  different  at  headquarters  in  Amer 
ica.  Smith  was  a  faith  healer,  but  he  recog- 

22  Millennial  Star,  13,  109;  16,63.  Pratt  adds  the  following 
telepathic  frill : — « At  the  same  hour  of  the  night  Sister  Bates,  of 
this  city,  had  an  open  vision  in  which  she  saw  Sister  Morgan  stand 
ing  in  full  view  before  her,  clothed  in  robes  beautiful  and  white,  and 
aiound  about  her  head  were  clouds  of  glory,  surpassing,  etc.  .  .  . 
It  was  not  a  dream  but  an  open  vision  continuing  some  time.  When 
the  vision  closed  she  immediately  informed  her  husband  of  it.' 
Time  does  not  seem  to  have  given  the  Mormons  any  more  sense. 
Thus,  P,  B.  Lewis,  writing  about  the  smallpox  in  the  Sandwich 
Islands  in  1853,  said  'scores  have  been  swept  away.  We  have 
sought  to  administer  to  the  brethren  through  the  power  of  our  priest 
hood,  and  our  administration  has  almost  universally  been  blessed 
to  those  who  have  taken  our  counsel.  Some  who  were  doing  well, 
have  been  induced  to  take  medicine,  or  bathe  in  cold  water,  and 
are  now  dead.' 


294    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

nized  his  limitations.  He  had  acquired  wisdom 
through  hard  knocks.  In  1832,  two  years  after  the 
exorcism  of  Newel  Knight, — 'the  first  miracle  in 
the  church ' — the  prophet  was  poisoned  by  some 
thing  he  ate  and  claimed  to  have  been  instantly 
cured  through  the  laying  on  of  hands  by  Brother 
Whitney.  This  was  explained,  not  by  the  means 
of  relief  nature  had  already  taken,  but  by  adminis 
tration  in  the  name  of  the  Lord.28  But  in  1834,  hap 
pening  to  be  involved  in  the  cholera  epidemic,  the 
prophet  was  not  slow  to  learn  that  his  powers  were 
circumscribed.  Speaking  of  the  attack  he  said: 
'  The  cholera  burst  forth  among  us,  even  those  on 
guard  fell  to  the  earth  with  their  guns  in  their 
hands.  ...  At  the  commencement  I  attempted 
to  lay  on  hands  for  their  recovery,  but  I  quickly 
learned  by  painful  experience,  that  when  the  great 
Jehovah  decrees  destruction  upon  any  people,  makes 
known  His  determination,  man  must  not  attempt  to 
stay  His  hand/24 

It  is  high  time  to  approach  the  philosophy  of 
Joseph's  real  accomplishments  as  faith  healer.  Back 
of  his  not  unsuccessful  practice  he  had  a  theory.  In 
a  single  word,  the  potent  force  with  him  was  faith : 
without  it  no  cures  are  possible.  This  is  the  sub 
stance  of  the  seven  Lectures  '  originally  delivered  be- 

j     •      •'         V^* 

93  « Times  and  Seasons/  5,  626. 
94 «  Times  and  Seasons,'  6,  1 106. 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       295 

fore  a  Class  of  the  Elders,  in  the  School  of  the 
Prophets.'  These  discourses  are  vapid  yet  they 
have  significance, — they  contain  adumbrations  of 
the  really  vital  principle  in  mental  healing.  This 
doctrine  of  faith  was  an  approximation  to  the  sub 
jective  attitude  of  trust  demanded  in  suggestive 
therapeutics.  Smith  defines  it  at  the  start,  both 
negatively  and  positively : — '  without  it  both  mind 
and  body  would  be  in  a  state  of  inactivity;  .  .  . 
as  faith  is  the  moving  cause  of  all  action  in  temporal 
concerns,  so  is  it  in  spiritual;  .  .  .  but  faith  is 
not  only  the  principle  of  action,  but  of  power  also, 
in  all  intelligent  beings,  whether  in  heaven  or  on 
earth.'  K  Like  previous  magic  healers,  from  Para 
celsus  to  Gassner,26  Joseph's  system  was  largely 
mystical;  with  him,  healing  was  counted  a  sacer 
dotal  gift.  Nevertheless  he  was  wary  in  regard  to 
his  priestly  function.  When  it  was  asked  in  1842 
'  what  signs  do  Jo  Smith  give  of  his  divine  mission  ? ' 
the  prophet  gave  this  delphic  response:  —  'The 
signs  which  God  is  pleased  to  let  him  give  according 
as  His  wisdom  thinks  best.'27 

To  turn  from  theory  to  practice,  and  to  examine 
a  half  dozen  faith  cures,  ranging  from  total  failure 


25  Lecture  I,  verses  10,  12,  13. 

26  Bernheim,  '  Hypnotisme,  Suggestion,  Psycho- therapie,'  Paris, 
1891,  pp.  14-20. 

37 '  Evening  and  Morning  Star,'  I,  28. 


296    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

to  permanent  relief,  and  from  a  lonesome  child  to  a 
crowd  of  adults.  In  the  first  case  strange  reliance 
was  placed  on  external  means;  Joseph  attempted  to 
'cure  by  baptism'  Lydia  Kimball,  age  eight,  who 
shortly  died  of  brain  fever.28  This  failure  discloses 
two  things:  that,  at  this  time,  Smith  was  rashly  ig 
norant  of  the  incurable,  and  also  that  he  was  far 
from  knowing  one  of  the  general  principles  of  sug 
gestion,  namely  that  children  are  less  susceptible  to 
mental  treatment  than  are  adults.39  Similar  igno 
rance  is  displayed  in  the  next  example,  for  it  is  only 
repeated  suggestion  and  the  continuous  presence  of 
the  operator  that  can  affect  the  restless  mind  of  a 
child.30  Kimball's  account  is  in  effect,  as  follows: 
When  Joseph  was  in  Far  West,  a  child  was  taken 
sick,  he  laid  hands  on  it,  and  it  got  better.  As  soon 
as  Joseph  went  outside  the  house,  the  child  was 
taken  sick  again.  A  second  time  he  laid  hands  on 
it,  and  it  recovered.  '  This  transpired  several  times 
and  Joseph  inquired  of  the  Lord  what  it  meant, 
when  he  had  an  open  vision  and  saw  the  devil  in 
person.' 81 

The  third  episode  concerns  an  adult,  but  the  allev 
iation  is  only  temporary.     So  far  the  two  points  of 

«  Littlefield,  '  Reminiscences.' 

39  Compare  Moll,  p.  5 1 :  '  Children  up  to  about  eight  years  of 
age  can  only  be  hypnotized  with  difficulty.' 
80  Compare  Tuckey,  p.  746. 
81 «  Journal,'  p.  80. 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       297 

interest  are  these:  that  the  prophet,  with  his  super 
ior  authority,  had  greater  success  than  two  elders 
who  had  already  made  the  patient  'perfectly 
whole '; 32  and  that  the  subject,  in  his  attempt  at  ex 
planation,  has  no  inkling  of  the  fact  that  suggestion 
may  reach  the  brain,  other  than  through  the  sense 
of  hearing.  '  While  at  Commerce,'  narrates  Brown, 
'I  was  sick  of  swamp  fever  for  two  or  three 
weeks.  I  was  so  far  gone  that  I  was  quite  senseless, 
and  all  thought  I  was  dying.  Joseph  Smith  laid  his 
hands  on  me  and  commanded  me  to  arise  and  walk 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord.  The  first  thing  I  knew,  I 
found  myself  walking  perfectly  well.'  M  The  trans 
ient  character  of  this  cure,  and  the  recurrence  of 
the  trouble,  agree  with  the  results  of  suggestive 
treatment.  Suggestion  may  lower  the  temperature 
in  fevers,34  but  in  those  of  a  cyclic  character,  it 
merely  diminishes  the  suffering  and  tones  up  the 
system.35 

The  next  '  cure  '  is  as  ephemeral  as  it  is  magical. 
Like  so  many  of  the  Saints,  living  along  the  Mis- 

82 « Testimonies,'  p.  10 : — «  My  lake  fever  is  cured  by  two  elders ; 
whilst  their  hands  were  yet  upon  my  head,  I  felt  the  disease  re 
move  from  my  body,  commencing  at  the  pit  of  my  stomach,  mov 
ing  gradually  upwards  towards  the  hands  of  the  elders,  and  I  was 
made  perfectly  whole.' 

33 '  Journal,'  p.  19. 

34  R.  O.  Mason,  « Hypnotism  and  Suggestion,'  New  York,  1901, 
p.  1 80. 

35  Bernheim,  p.  234. 


298     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

souri  River,  the  patient  was  presumably  overcome 
by  fever.  It  was  claimed  that  he  was  raised  from 
his  deathbed,  yet  he  shortly  has  a  relapse  and 
needs  further  treatment.  As  Woodruff  inoppor 
tunely  admits,  Fordham  faints  at  the  sight  of  the 
mob,  but  revives  under  Joseph's  influence. 86  Two 
accounts  are  given  of  the  Fordham  case  and  they 
agree  in  two  important  particulars:  on  the  one 
hand,  the  edge  is  taken  off  the  miracle  from  the  fact 
of  the  previous  use  of  remedies;  on  the  other  hand, 
Joseph's  operations  appear  to  have  brought  about  a 
condition  resembling  artificially  induced  hypnotic 
sleep.  Kimball  tells  how  'Joseph  stepped  to  the 
bedside  of  brother  Fordham,  who  was  insensible 
and  considered  by  the  family  to  be  dying.  He 
looked  him  in  the  eye  for  a  minute  without  speak 
ing,  then  took  him  by  the  hand  and  commanded 
him  to  arise  and  walk.  Fordham  did  so,  threw  off 
all  bandages  and  poultices,  ate  a  bowl  of  bread  and 
milk,  and  followed  us  into  the  street.'37 

36  «  Journal,'  p.  65. 

87 «  Journal,'  p.  82.  Compare  Woodruff,  p.  62: — '  Fordham  was 
dying,  his  eyes  were  glazed,  he  was  speechless  and  unconscious. 
Joseph  asked  Fordham  if  he  did  not  know  him.  Fordham  at  first 
made  no  reply,  but  we  could  all  see  the  effect  of  the  Spirit  of  God 
resting  upon  him  ;  he  then  answered  a  low  "  Yes."  He  had  the 
appearance  of  a  man  waking  from  sleep.  Then  Joseph  com 
manded  in  a  loud  voice,  "  I  command  you  to  arise  and  be  made 
whole."  Fordham  leaped  from  the  bed,  the  healthy  color  came  to 
his  face,  he  kicked  off  the  Indian  meal  poultices  on  his  feet  and 
ate  a  bowl  of  bread  and  milk.' 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       299 

The  last  of  the  individual  cases  is  that  of  Mrs, 
Johnson  of  Hiram,  Ohio.  It  has  a  negative  interest 
because  the  environment  was  one  of  psychic  hostil 
ity.  Yet  the  sceptical  narrator  himself  admits  the 
cure.38  The  prophet  being  asked  if  he  pretended  to 
the  performance  of  miracles,  and  answering  that  he 
had  the  ability  only  through  God,  Mrs.  Johnson  was 
suddenly  introduced.  Joseph  was  not  taken  aback, 
but  with  calm  assurance  he  looked  intently  into  the 
woman's  eyes,  then  taking  hold  of  her  arm  '  palsied 
by  rheumatism,'  he  commanded  her  in  a  solemn 
voice  to  be  made  whole.  The  bystanders  asserted 
that  the  patient  at  once  found  her  arm  under  con 
trol  and  that  it  remained  thus,  until  her  death  fifteen 
years  after.  This  cure,  being  well  attested,  is  of 
course  cited  by  the  Mormons  as  miraculous,  while 
their  enemies  put  forward  the  usual  half-baked  ex 
planation  of  animal  magnetism. S9 

A  brief  scrutiny  of  these  cases  will  reveal  to  what 
degree  they  may  be  put  in  terms  of  reputable 

38  E.  D.  Howe,  '  Mormonism  Unveiled,'  p.  104. 

89  Compare  J.  H.  Kennedy,  '  Early  Days  of  Mormonism,'  p.  122, 
who  quotes  from  a  sermon  preached  in  Hiram,  O.,  on  August  3, 
1870,  by  B.  A.  Hinsdale,  then  President  of  Hiram  College  :  'The 
company  were  awe-stricken  at  the  infinite  presumption  of  the  man, 
and  the  calm  assurance  with  which  he  spoke.  The  sudden  mental 
and  moral  shock — I  know  not  how  better  to  explain  the  well-at 
tested  fact — electrified  the  rheumatic  arm.  Mrs.  Johnson  at  once 
lifted  it  up  with  ease,  and  on  her  return  home  the  next  day  she 
was  able  to  do  her  washing  without  difficulty  or  pain.' 


300    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

psycho-therapeutics.  At  first  it  is  difficult  to  decide 
whether  Smith's  achievements  were  due  to  simple 
suggestion  or  hypnotic  suggestion,  for  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  draw  a  sharp  line  between  the  two.  40 
Suggestion  without  hypnosis  is  probable  in  the 
majority  of  instances,  since  the  states  of  conscious 
ness,  ranging  from  lethargy  to  light  sleep,  were  in 
duced  pathologically  and  not  artificially,  by  the 
disease  and  not  by  the  operator.  Nevertheless  real 
hypnotic  suggestion  may  be  postulated,  if  one  ac 
cepts  the  less  occult  definition  of  hypnosis  as  '  the 
production  of  a  psychical  condition  in  which  the 
faculty  of  receiving  impressions  by  suggestion  is 
greatly  increased.'41  This  would  cover  the  various 
cases  cited,  for  in  the  lightest  stages  of  hypnosis 
there  is  no  loss  of  consciousness,  while  good  re 
sults  are  effected  even  when  the  patient  denies 
having  felt  any  hypnotic  influence. 42  Again,  real 
hypnosis  is  implied  in  the  Johnson  case,  not  simply 
because  chronic  rheumatism  has  yielded  to  hypnotic 
treatment,  but  because  'the  immense  power  of 
hypnotic  suggestion  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it 
succeeds  in  a  large  number  of  cases  in  spite  of  mis 
trust.'43  Still  further,  the  above  instances  may  be 
brought  under  hypnotism  if  suggestion  is  given  its 

40  Moll,  p.  318. 

41  Bernheim's  definition,  quoted  in  Tuckey,  p.  748. 

42  Moll,  p.  347. 

43  Moll,  p.  347. 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       301 

full  signification;  the  word  does  not  merely  stand 
for  an  artful  hint  or  insinuation,  which  increases  the 
patient's  receptivity,  it  also  connotes  a  reinforcing 
of  the  subject's  power  to  perform  the  suggested 
act.44  Lastly,  Smith's  successes  lay  in  the  sphere  of 
hypnotic  successes,  roughly  defined  as  neuroses, 
for  the  alterations  were  psychic  rather  than 
organic.*5 

But  lest  wisdom  be  attributed  where  wisdom 
was  lacking,  there  is  need  of  a  final  word  of  quali 
fication.  Smith's  gift  of  healing  was  got  by 
chance,  it  was  magical  in  theory  and  sacerdotal  in 
practice,  nearer  the  middle  ages  than  modern 
science.  The  prophet  insisted  on  faith,  his  follow 
ers  believed  in  the  priesthood,  and  both  priest  and 
people  trusted  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  As  already 
seen,  faith  with  Joseph  was  no  longer  a  mere  youthful 
reaction  against  infidelity  and  dry  scholasticism,  but 
a  positive  means  to  gain  an  unthinking  obedience. 
Moreover  as  to  prayer,  Smith  directs  his  'quorums 
of  three '  to  pray  in  succession  and  in  successive 

44  Compare  Tuckey,  p.  748  : — '  Suggestions  have  all  the   force 
of  commands,  and  the  patient  will  stretch  every  nerve  to  obey 
them.     If  he  is  told  to  move  a  paralyzed  limb,  or  to  speak  after 
months  of  loss  of  voice,  one  can  see   what  intense  effort  he  puts 
into  the  attempt  to  comply.     A  stammerer  making  such  effort  will 
speak  fluently,  and  a  deaf  person  will  distinctly  hear  a  whisper.' 

45  Compare  Thomas  Ribot, '  The  Diseases  of  Personality,'  1894, 
P-  137- 


302    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

quorums, — and  then  to  lay  on  hands.46  But  this 
psychic  inductive  method  might  easily  be  spoiled; 
as  Brown  said  of  a  moment's  inattention  on  the 
part  of  a  single  elder, — 'this  broke  the  chain  of  our 


union  and  strength. '4: 

It  was  through  the  appeal  to  the  emotional  and 
unthinking  side  of  human  nature  that  the  Mormons 
could  employ  their  primitive  machinery.  Oftentimes 
the  elders  would  anoint  the  patient  with  oil,  although 
it  was  admitted  that  this  could  not  reach  the  root  of 
the  disease.*8  Once  Joseph  descended  to  the  use  of 
the  charm  or  talisman.  Woodruff  says  that  after 
Fordham  was  revived, — '  then  Joseph  sends  me  with 
his  red  silk  handkerchief  to  cure  two  children  of  a 
man  of  the  world.  I  wipe  their  faces  with  it,  and 
they  are  cured.'49 

The  prophet  used  magic;  he  also  sought  the  aid 
of  mystery.  Judging  from  the  local  admiration 
for  the  architectural  abortion  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
the  earlier  Saints  were  capable  of  looking  on  even 
the  Temple  of  Zion  at  Nauvoo  as  a  holy  shrine. 
At  any  rate,  soon  after  the  first  log  was  laid, 
Smith  called  for  a  Recorder  of  Miracles.60  Yet 
uninspiring  surroundings  were  offset  by  the  blind 

46  «  Fragments  of  Experience,'  p.  43. 

47 «  Journal,'  p.  1 8. 

48 'Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  603. 

49 'Journal,'  p.  65. 

60  •  Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  439. 


JOSEPH  THE  FAITH  HEALER       303 

zeal  of  the  persons  concerned.  It  was  not  material 
things  but  psychic  processes  that  helped  the  most. 
Hence  Joseph's  manner  of  making  the  healing  sug 
gestion,  to  his  disciples  at  least,  was  undeniably  im 
pressive.  It  was  not  in  the  opinion  of  Pratt  alone 
that  the  prophet  was  '  of  an  expression  peculiar  to 
himself,  on  which  the  eye  naturally  rested  with  in 
terest,  and  was  never  weary  of  beholding.' 51  It  was 
from  the  false  perspective  of  emotional  excitement 
that  most  of  his  followers  looked  on  the  person  of 

their  ecclesiastical  head  with  reverence  and  awe. 

j  A,-* 

Indeed,  these  American  sectaries  were  strangely  like 
those  who  once  sought  to  be  healed  of  the  king's 
evil;  they  lived  in  the  nineteenth  century,  yet  the 
great  mass  of  them  believed  in  the  divine  right  of 
their  ruler.  Despite  this  kindred  touch  of  madness, 
there  were  also  present  among  the  Mormons  the  more 
normal  circumstances  which  favor  mental  healing, 
namely  :  the  patient's  desire  to  be  cured,  his  belief 
in  the  means,  and  a  sympathetic  environment.52 

With  the  summary  statement  that  the  convinced 
mind  works  the  quickest,  it  is  possible  to  get  at  the 
significance  of  Smith's  wholesale  acts  of  faith  heal 
ing.  In  the  two  accounts  of  the  scenes  on  the  banks 

61 « Autobiography,'  p.  47. 

"Tuckey.p.  743. 

63  Moll,  p.  351,  quoting  Liebault  and  Schrenck-Notzing. 

64 « Journal,'  p.  62.     Compare  Kimball,  p.  82. 


304    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

of  the  Mississippi,  the  fabulous  drops  off  of  itself,  as 
when,  for  example,  it  was  alleged  that  the  prevalence 
of  chills  and  fever  was  due  to  the  devil.  There  yet 
remains  a  slight  residue  of  facts,  which  needs  ex 
planation,  since  it  cannot  be  wholly  explained  away. 
The  annual  affair  at  Lourdes  is  a  far  call  from  the 
Nauvoo  affair  of  sixty  years  ago,  yet  under  both 
there  is  a  thin  stratum  of  truth.  It  may  be  expressed 
in  the  formula  of  recent  practitioners:  that  collective 
hypnosis  is  possible  among  the  ignorant  classes  and 
that,  conversely,  when  the  psychic  contagion  be 
comes  stronger,  hypnosis  is  rendered  easier.53 

To  turn,  inconclusion,  to  the  scene  of  July  22d, 
1839: '  It  was  a  very  sickly  time,'  narrates  Woodruff.54 
'  Large  numbers  of  the  Saints,  driven  out  of  Mis 
souri,  were  flocking  from  Commerce  and  were  living 
in  wagons,  tents  and  on  the  ground.  Many  were 
sick  through  exposure.  Brother  Joseph  had  waited 
on  the  sick  until  he  was  worn  out  and  nearly  sick 
himself.  After  praying,  he  healed  all  in  his  house 
and  door  yard;  then  in  company  with  Sidney  Rig- 
don  and  several  of  the  twelve,  he  went  through 
among  the  sick  lying  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and 
he  commanded  them  in  a  loud  voice  to  come  up  and 
be  made  whole  and  they  were  all  healed.' 


CHAPTER  X 
FINAL  ACTIVITIES 


CHAPTER  X 

FINAL  ACTIVITIES 

SMITH'S  varied  activities  during  the  fifteen  years  of 
his  public  life,1  give  a  final  notion  of  the  restlessness 
and  instability  of  his  character.  It  is  impossible  to 
gather  up  these  scattered  threads  in  one  caption,  but 
there  is  a  common  principle  which  binds  together 
the  events  of  1830  with  those  of  1844.  The  prophet 
began  his  career  with  a  revelation  on  communism, 
he  ended  it  with  what  may  be  termed  a  revelation 
on  matrimonial  collectivism.  The  latter  topic,  in 
the  nature  of  the  case,  can  only  be  touched  upon, 
but  the  former  is  important  in  showing  the  hap 
hazard  mental  development  of  the  man.  Unlike  his 
occultism,  Joseph's  socialism  may  be  traced  to  cert 
ain  formal  movements  of  his  day.1  Besides  this 
source  there  was  another  mind  as  intermediary. 

1  Unless  otherwise  specified,  the  references  in  this  chapter  are  to 
the  '  Times  and  Seasons.' 

2  The  following  works  have  been  consulted  on  this  topic :  R.  T. 
Ely,  '  French  and  German  Socialism  in  Modern  Times,'  New  York, 
1833;  H.  A.  James,  '  Communism  in  America,'  New  York,  1879; 
Meredith   Nicholson,   'The    Hoosiers,'    1900;   Charles   Nordhoff, 
•The  Communistic  Societies  of  the  United  States,'  New  York, 

307 


308     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

But  to  consider  the  historic  setting  in  its  general 
aspects.  Of  the  six  communistic  societies  of  the 
United  States,  considered  worth  treatment  by  the 
authorities  a  generation  ago,  only  half  could  have 
influenced  young  Mormonism.  The  Icarians  settled 
at  Nauvoo,  but  that  was  after  the  Mormon  exodus. 
In  New  York  State  the  Perfectionists  had  their  Oneida 
community,  but  this  combination  of  polygamy  and 
polyandry  was  not  started  until  1848.  Six  years  be 
fore  the  German  Inspirationists  had  their  Amana 
community  near  Buffalo.  These  settlements  may 
have  given  hints  to  Brigham  Young  the  usurper, 
they  were  too  late  to  influence  Joseph  Smith  the 
founder. 

Turning  to  the  other  communistic  societies,  it 
should  be  incidentally  noticed  that  all  but  those  on 
the  Wabash  were  celibate  in  their  tendencies.  As 
early  as  1828,  the  United  Society  of  Believers 
claimed  sixteen  branches  in  the  land,  and  four  years 
before  the  publication  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  their 
Groveland  Society  was  started  on  the  Genesee. 
That  these  rustic  doctrinaires  gave  hints  to  young 
Joseph  is  an  open  question.  In  1842,  he  spoke  of 
the  Shakers  with  but  half-concealed  contempt;  at 

1875;  W.  L.  Sargent,  'Robert  Owen  and  his  Social  Philosophy,' 
London,  1860;  Albert  Shaw,  '  Icaria,  A  Chapter  in  the  History  of 
Communism,'  New  York,  1884;  Warner,  «  Cooperation  Among  the 
Mormons,'  Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies,  6th  series,  VII  and 
VIII. 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  309 

any  rate,  nine  years  previous  they  refused  to 
affiliate  with  the  Latter-day  Saints.  The  remaining 
semi-socialistic  groups  were  of  small  size,  but  of 
great  influence  on  Mormonism — and  that  through 
the  medium  of  Sidney  Rigdon.  Near  Pittsburg,  the 
scene  of  his  earlier  activities,  the  Rappists  founded 
their  New  Harmony  Society,  in  1805;  they  moved 
from  Pennsylvania  to  Indiana  in  1814,  and  ten  years 
after,  sold  out  to  Robert  Dale  Owen.  Here  comes 
in  a  most  curious  link  between  the  father  of  English 
socialism  and  the  man  who  was  said  to  have  '  in 
vented  '  Mormonism.3  Rigdon  was  at  one  time  hand 
in  glove  with  the  redoubtable  Alexander  Campbell, 
the  same  who  had  attacked  Owen  as  an  infidel, 
and  had  called  his  New  Harmony  Gazette,  'the 
focus  of  the  lights  of  scepticism.'4  That  Owen's 
free  and  easy  ideas  on  marriage  cropped  out  in  the 
Mormon  spiritual  wife  system  is  improbable,  but 
his  socialistic  notions  were  already  common 
property.  In  1824,  he  made  speeches  before  Con 
gress;  in  1829,  he  held  an  eight  day  debate  with 
Alexander  Campbell  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  at  which 
1,200  persons  were  said  to  be  present.  How  the 
doctrines  of  Fourier  worked  their  crooked  way 
into  Rigdon's  cracked  skull  is  a  side  issue:  yet 
here,  in  the  Western  Reserve,  there  was  a  diluted 

3  New  York  Times,  Saturday  Review  of  Books,  January  II,  1902. 

4  Venable,  p.  222. 


OF  THE 

{    UNIVERSITY 


3io    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

socialism  a  decade  before  the  Brook  Farm  experi 
ment.  In  view  of  these  things,  Smith's  claim  to 
socialistic  originality  is  absurd;  his  followers  were 
no  more  troubled  about  the  theory  of  the  thing  than 
a  hive  of  bees;  but  the  prophet's  appropriation  of 
Rigdon's  socialistic  ideas  is  as  patent  as  his  grafting 
of  Rigdon's  Kirtland  branch  into  his  own  church. 

The  way  the  seer  and  revelator  put  a  religious 
veneer  on  these  borrowings  is  highly  characteristic. 
Like  the  Separatists,  who  settled  at  Zoar,  Ohio,  in 
1819,  a  score  of  families  in  Rigdon's  locality  had  al 
ready  formed  themselves  into  a  common  stock 
company.  Smith  says  that  since  Rigdon's  Church 
at  Kirtland  'had  all  things  in  common,  the  idea 
arose  that  this  was  the  case  with  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ.'  He  adds  that  the  'plan  of  "Common 
Stock"  which  had  existed  in  what  was  called  "the 
family,"  .  .  .  was  readily  abandoned  for  the 
more  perfect  law  of  the  Lord.'  Of  what  this  '  law 
for  the  government  of  the  Church  '  consisted,  is  ex 
plained  in  a  revelation  of  February,  1831 : 

'  If  thou  lovest  me,  thou  shalt  serve  me  and  keep  all  my 
commandments. 

And  behold,  thou  shalt  consecrate  all  thy  properties 
which  thou  hast  to  impart  unto  me  with  a  covenant  and 
a  deed  which  cannot  be  broken ; 

And  they  shall  be  laid  before  the  bishop  of  my  church 
and  two  of  the  elders,  such  as  he  shall  appoint  and  set 
apart  for  that  purpose. 

And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  the  bishop  of  my 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  311 

church,  after  that  he  has  received  the  properties  of  my 
church,  that  it  cannot  be  taken  from  the  church,  he  shall 
appoint  every  man  a  steward  over  his  own  property,  or 
that  which  he  has  received,  inasmuch  as  is  sufficient  for 
himself  and  family;  and  the  residue  shall  be  kept  to  ad 
minister  to  him  who  has  not,  that  every  man  may  receive 
accordingly  as  he  stands  in  need ;  and  the  residue  shall 
be  kept  in  my  storehouse,  to  administer  to  the  poor  and 
needy,  as  shall  be  appointed  by  the  elders  of  the  church 
and  the  bishop;  and  for  the  purpose  of  purchasing 
lands,  and  the  building  up  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  which 
is  hereafter  to  be  revealed ;  that  my  covenant  people  be 
gathered  in  one,  in  the  day  that  I  shall  come  to  my 
temple ;  and  this  I  do  for  the  salvation  of  my  people. 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  he  that  sinneth  and  re- 
penteth  not,  shall  be  cast  out,  and  shall  not  receive  again 
that  which  he  has  consecrated  unto  me ;  for  it  shall  come 
to  pass,  that  which  I  spoke  by  the  mouths  of  my  prophets 
shall  be  fulfilled,  for  I  will  consecrate  the  riches  of  the 
Gentiles  unto  my  people,  which  are  of  the  house  of 
Israel.5 

The  form  which  the  law  of  the  Lord  ultimately 
took  reads  like  a  page  from  Gulliver's  Travels ;  it 
is  worth  quoting,  if  only  to  show  that  the  fancy  of 
the  Latter-day  prophet  was  as  weird  as  the  mad 
dean's  Kingdom  of  Laputa: — 

'Revelation  given  April  23d,  1834,  to  Enoch,  (Joseph 
Smith,  jun.,),  concerning  the  order  of  the  church  for 
the  benefit  of  the  poor.  Let  my  servant  Pelagoram  (Sid 
ney  Rigdon)  have  appointed  unto  him  the  place  where 
he  now  resides,  and  the  lot  of  Tahhanes  (the  tannery) 
for  his  stewardship,  for  his  support  while  he  is  laboring 

6 «  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  44.  For  the  financial  side 
of  these  revelations  compare  'Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  §§  19,  24, 
43.  58,  63,  84. 


312     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

in  my  vineyard,  even  as  I  will  when  I  shall  command 
him; 

And  let  my  servant  Mahemson  (Martin  Harris)  devote 
his  moneys  for  the  proclaiming  of  my  words,  according 
as  my  servant  Gazelam  (Joseph  Smith,  jr.)  shall  direct. 

And  let  my  servant  Olihah  (Oliver  Cowdery)  have 
the  lot  which  is  set  off  joining  the  house,  which  is  to 
be  for  the  Laneshine-house,  (printing  office),  which  is 
lot  number  one,  and  also  the  lot  upon  which  his  father 
resides. 

After  you  are  organized,  you  shall  be  called  the 
United  Order  of  the  Stake  of  Zion,  the  city  of  Shine- 
hah.  (Kirtland.)  And  your  brethren,  after  they  are 
organized,  shall  be  called  the  United  Order  of  the  City 
of  Zion.' 

But  the  prophet's  schemes  had  a  serious  financial 
side.  The  first  tithing,  in  1834  is  said  to  have  been 
only  a  '  conditional  covenant  with  the  Lord.'  This 
celestial  application  of  the  promissory  note  should 
be  compared  with  the 

<  Revelation  given  at  Far  West,  July  8th,  1838,  in  an 
swer  to  the  question  :  O  Lord,  show  unto  thy  servants 
how  much  thou  requirest  of  the  properties  of  the  people 
for  a  tithing  ? 

Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  require  all  their  surplus 
property  to  be  put  into  the  hands  of  the  bishop  of  my 
church  of  Zion, 

For  the  building  of  mine  house,  and  for  the  laying  of 
the  foundation  of  Zion  and  for  the  priesthood,  and  for 
the  debts  of  the  presidency  of  my  church  ; 

And  this  shall  be  the  beginning  of  the  tithing  of  my 
people ; 

And  after  that,  those  who  have  thus  been  tithed,  shall 
pay  one-tenth  of  all  their  interest  annually;  and  this 
shall  be  a  standing  law  unto  them  for  ever,  for  my  holy 
priesthood,  saith  the  Lord.' 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  313 

When  Smith  ridiculed  the  Millerites  for  their  mill 
ennial  fears,  he  had  forgotten  the  early  financial 
panic  in  his  own  church.  In  their  haste  to  escape 
the  wrath  to  come,  many  of  the  Saints  sold  their 
eastern  possessions  at  a  loss,  and  hastened  to  Zion 
as  to  the  ark  of  safety, — '  for  after  much  tribulation 
cometh  the  blessings  '  said  the  prophet.  A  revela 
tion  of  August,  1831,  gives  the  details  of  the  coming 
'  feast  of  fat  things ' :  — 

'  And  I  give  unto  my  servant,  Sidney,  a  commandment, 
that  he  shall  write  a  description  of  the  land  of  Zion, 
and  a  statement  of  the  will  of  God,  as  it  shall  be  made 
known  by  the  Spirit,  unto  him ; 

And  an  epistle  and  subscription,  to  be  presented  unto 
all  the  churches  to  obtain  moneys,  to  be  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  bishop,  to  purchase  lands  for  an  inheritance 
for  the  children  of  God,  of  himself  or  the  agent,  as 
seemeth  him  good  or  as  he  shall  direct. 

For  behold,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  the  Lord  willeth 
that  the  disciples,  and  the  children  of  men  should  open 
their  hearts,  even  to  purchase  this  whole  region  of  coun 
try,  as  soon  as  time  will  permit.' 

The  project  on  which  the  leaders  slipped  up  was 
the  Kirtland  Safety  Society  Bank.  There  are  oc 
casionally  to  be  seen  the  notes  of  this  institution, 
signed — *J.  Smith,  Jr.,  Cashier,  Sidney  Rigdon, 
President.'  Some  one  has  sardonically  called  atten 
tion  to  the  engraving  on  these  bank  notes,  repre 
senting  a  fleeced  sheep.  But  the  fancy  does  not 
come  up  to  the  fact.  In  entire  conformity  to  the 
wild-cat  speculations  of  ante-bellum  days,  the 


3H    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

prophet  announced  that  this  bank  would  '  swallow 
up  all  other  banks.'  How  it  failed  for  $ioo,ooo,8 
and  how  Smith  took  advantage  of  the  bankruptcy 
laws  is  not  half  so  illuminating  as  the  way  in  which 
the  church  conference  'moved  and  seconded  that 
the  debts  of  Kirtland  should  come  up  no  more.' 
Joseph's  prophetic  fmanceering  was  one  of  the 
reasons  why  the  Mormons  were  at  last  driven  from 
Ohio.  But  even  the  seer  and  revelator  could  not 
fool  all  the  people,  all  the  time.  He  opened  up  a 
subscription  to  the  '  Nauvoo  House, — a  delightful 
habitation  for  man,  and  a  resting  place  for  the 
weary  traveller.'  But  subscriptions  came  in  slowly, 
for  the  thrifty  Saints  were  not  yet  under  the  paw  of 
Brigham.  As  Parley  Pratt  so  plaintively  remarked, 
'a  woman  comes  here  and  keeps  her  money  sewed 
up  in  her  stays,  instead  of  entering  into  business 
with  it.' 

These  communistic  ambitions  died  hard.  Backed 
up  by  restorationist  expectations,  they  made  an 
irresistible  appeal  to  Joseph's  imagination.  Those 
Utopian  schemes,  that  Josiah  Quincy  mentioned, 
had  long  been  fermenting  in  the  prophet's  brain, 
and  were  now  put  on  paper.  If  a  literary  compari 
son  is  allowable,  Lord  Verulam  with  his  New  At 
lantis,  or  Campanella  with  his  City  of  the  Sun  could 
not  hold  a  candle  to  Smith  with  his  new  Mormon 

6  Milltnnial  Star,  19,  343;  20,  108. 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  315 

Zion,  soon  to  arise  on  the  Western  Frontiers.  By 
the  revelation  of  June  25,  1833,  a  square  mile  of 
land  was  to  be  obtained  and  on  it  were  to  be  built 
'  a  house  of  the  Lord  for  the  presidency  of  the  high 
and  most  holy  priesthood  after  the  order  of  Mel- 
chisedec;  the  sacred  apostolic  repository  for  the  use 
of  the  bishop;  the  holy  evangelical  house,  for  the 
high  priesthood  of  the  holy  order  of  God;  house  of 
the  Lord  for  the  elders  of  Zion ;  house  of  the  Lord 
for  the  presidency  of  the  high  priesthood;  house  of 
the  Lord  for  the  high  priesthood  after  the  order  of 
Aaron;  house  of  the  Lord  for  the  teachers  in  Zion; 
house  of  the  Lord  for  the  deacons  in  Zion.' 7 


*  Compare  Bancroft,  p.  96  : — '  A  plan  and  specifications  for  the 
new  city  of  Zion  were  sent  out  from  Kirtland.  The  plot  was  one 
mile  square,  drawn  to  a  scale  of  660  feet  to  one  inch.  Each 
square  was  to  contain  ten  acres,  or  660  feet  fronts.  Lots  were  to 
be  laid  out  alternately  in  the  squares ;  in  one,  fronting  north  or 
south ;  in  the  next  east  or  west ;  each  lot  extending  to  the  centre 
line  of  its  square,  with  a  frontage  of  sixty-six  feet  and  a  depth  of 
330  feet,  or  half  an  acre.  By  this  arrangement  in  one  square  the 
houses  would  stand  on  one  street,  and  in  the  square  opposite  on 
another  street.  Through  the  middle  of  the  plot  ran  a  range  of 
blocks  660  feet  by  990  feet  set  apart  for  the  public  buildings,  and 
in  these  the  lots  were  all  laid  off  north  and  south,  the  greatest 
length  of  the  blocks  being  from  east  to  west :  thus  making  all  the 
lots  equal  in  size.  The  whole  plot  was  supposed  to  be  sufficient  for 
the  accommodation  of  from  15,000  to  20,000  people.  All  stables, 
barns,  etc.,  were  to  be  built  north  or  south  of  the  plot,  none  being 
permitted  in  the  city  among  the  houses.  Sufficient  adjoining 
ground  on  all  sides  was  to  be  reserved  for  supplying  the  city  with 
vegetables,  etc.  All  streets  [were  to  be  132  feet  (eight  perches) 


316     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

But  the  work  dragged  on ;  eight  years  later  the 
prophet,  writing  from  the  city  of  Nauvoo,  urged 
the  brethren  to  come  in  without  delay,  for  this  was 
the  corner-stone  of  Zion;  '  here  the  Temple  must  be 
raised,  the  University  built,  and  other  edifices  be 
erected  which  are  necessary  for  the  great  work  of 
the  last  days.'  In  the  meantime,  word  was  sent  to 
'  the  Saints  in  England  who  are  extremely  poor  and 

wide,  and  a  like  width  was  to  be  laid  off  between  the  temple  and 
its  surrounding  streets.  But  one  house  was  to  be  built  on  a  lot, 
and  that  must  front  on  a  line  twenty-five  feet  from  the  street,  the 
space  in  front  to  be  set  out  with  trees,  shrubs,  etc.,  according  to 
the  builder's  taste.  All  houses  to  be  of  either  brick  or  stone.  The 
house  of  the  Lord  for  the  presidency  was  to  be  sixty-one  feet  by 
eighty-seven  feet,  ten  feet  of  the  length  for  a  stairway.  The  in 
terior  was  so  arranged  as  to  permit  its  division  into  four  parts  by 
curtains.  At  the  east  and  west  ends  were  to  be  pulpits  arranged 
for  the  several  grades  of  president  and  council,  bishop  and  council 
high  priests  and  elders,  at  the  west;  and  the  lesser  priesthood, 
comprising  presidency,  priests,  teachers,  and  deacons,  at  the  east. 
Provision  was  also  made  to  seat  visiting  officers  according  to  their 
grades.  The  pews  were  fitted  with  sliding  seats,  so  that  the  audi 
ence  could  face  either  pulpit  as  required.  There  was  to  be  no  gal 
lery,  but  the  house  was  to  be  divided  into  two  stories  of  fourteen 
feet  each.  A  bell  of  very  large  size  was  also  ordered.  Finally, 
on  each  public  building  must  be  written  Holiness  to  the  Lord. 
When  this  plot  was  settled,  another  was  to  be  laid  out,  and  so  on. 
"  Times  and  Seasons,"  vi.  785-7,  800.  Zion  City — its  prototype  in 
Enoch's  City.  Young's  "  History  of  the  Seventies,"  9-15,  No.  10, 
in  "  Mormon  Pamphlets."  It  was  revealed  to  Smith  that  the  waters 
of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  covered  the  site  of  a  prehistoric  city,  built  by 
and  named  for  Enoch ;  and  that  it  was  translated  because  its  in 
habitants  had  become  so  far  advanced  that  further  earthly  residence 
was  unnecessary.  Zion,  Smith's  ideal  city,  was  finally  to  reach  a 
like  state  of  perfection.' 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  317 

not  accustomed  to  the  farming  business  .  .  . 
this  place  has  advantages  for  manufacturing  and 
commercial  purposes,  which  but  very  few  can 
boast  of;  and  by  establishing  cotton  factories,  foun 
dries,  potteries  etc.,  etc.,  would  be  the  means  of 
bringing  in  wealth  and  raising  it  to  a  very  important 
elevation.' 

At  this  time,  the  president  of  the  church  com 
plained  of  being  overwhelmed  with  a  multiplicity 
of  business.  To  run  over  his  Journal,  and  to  ex 
tract  but  one  event  a  year,  will  give  an  idea  of  the 
number  of  irons  he  had  in  the  fire.  Besides  the 
United  Firm  and  the  Safety  Bank,  he  had  already 
started  the  Literary  Firm  and  the  Mercantile  Estab 
lishment.  In  1833,  he  dedicated  the  printing  office 
of  the  Latter-day  Saints'  Messenger  and  Advocate. 
In  1834,  he  organized  the  First  High  Council  of  the 
Church  of  Christ,  with  himself,  Rigdon  and  Wil 
liams  as  the  First  Presidency.  In  1835,  he  chose 
the  Twelve  Apostles,  among  whom  were  Brigham 
Young,  the  Lion  of  the  Lord;  Parley  Pratt,  the 
Archer  of  Paradise;  and  Lyman  Wight,  the  Wild 
Ram  of  the  Mountain.  In  1836,  Smith  organized 
the  several  quorums,  first  the  Presidency,  then  the 
Twelve,  and  the  Seventy,  also  the  counsellors  of 
Kirtland  and  Zion.  In  1837,  he  set  apart  apostles 
Kimball  and  Hyde  to  go  to  a  mission  to  England, 
the  first  foreign  mission  of  the  Church.  In  1838, 


3i 8     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

during  the  Missouri  troubles,  he  traveled  as  far 
away  as  Monmouth  County,  New  Jersey,  to 
strengthen  the  new  branches.  Returning  to  Mis 
souri,  and  being  confined  in  Liberty  Jail,  Clay 
County,  he  warned  his  followers  against  starting 
any  more  secret  societies.  In  1839,  the  prophet  had 
his  hands  full  in  assisting  fifteen  thousand  perse 
cuted  saints  to  escape  from  Missouri.  In  1840,  he 
succeeded  in  obtaining  from  the  Illinois  legislature 
charters  for  the  City  of  Nauvoo,  the  University  of 
Nauvoo,  and  the  Nauvoo  Legion.8 

Joseph  Smith,  junior,  now  gained  a  title  of  which 
he  was  immensely  proud,— he  became  a  lieutenant- 
general.  'Amid  loud  peals  from  the  artilery,'  runs 
the  official  account,  'accompanied  by  his  aids-de 
camp  and  conspicuous  strangers,  he  laid  the  chief 
corner-stone  of  the  Temple  of  our  God.'  Joseph  as 
a  military  bishop  cuts  a  strange  figure.  Once  when 
his  companions  in  arms  were  in  dread  of  the  mob, 
who  were  disguised  as  Delaware  Indians,  'the 
prophet  came  along  and  said  "God  and  liberty  is 
the  watchword.  Fear  them  not,  for  their  hearts  are 
cold  as  cucumbers.'"* 

General  Joseph  Smith  dressed  in  full  uniform 
standing  on  the  top  of  a  house,  brandishing  his 
sword  towards  heaven,  and  delivering  his  last  pub- 

8  Com  pare  'Revised  Laws  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion,'  1844. 

9  Stevenson,  « Reminiscences,'  p.  37. 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  319 

lie  speech, — this  is  Joseph  the  histrione.10  But  to 
the  rank  and  file  life  was  not  an  opera  bouffe. 
Their  very  enemies  acknowledged  their  terrible 
sufferings  undergone  in  Missouri,  while  in  1841  the 
Chicago  Democrat  regrets  to  learn  that  Illinois  is 
beginning  to  persecute  the  saints  in  the  Bounty 
Tract.11  Of  the  way  the  prophet  became  involved 
in  politics,  only  brief  notice  can  be  given.  While 
mayor  of  Nauvoo,  Smith  was  accused  of  attempt 
ing  to  found  a  military  church;  he  replied  that  the 
Nauvoo  Legion  was  not  got  up  for  sinister  or  illegal 
purposes,  yet  in  general  orders  he  invites  recruits 

»o  «  The  Martyrs/  pp.  59-61. 

11 «  Joseph  the  Seer,'  p.  191: — 'Professor  Turner,  sometime  of 
Illinois  College,  an  open  and  bitter  opponent  of  the  Church  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints,  in  writing  of  the  conduct  of  Missouri  towards  the 
Mormons,  says :  "  Who  began  the  quarrel  ?  Was  it  the  Mor 
mons  ?  Is  it  not  notorious,  on  the  contrary,  that  they  were  hunted 
like  wild  beasts,  from  county  to  county,  before  they  made  any 
desperate  resistance  ?  Did  they  ever,  as  a  body,  refuse  obedience 
to  the  laws,  when  called  upon  to  do  so,  until  driven  to  desperation 
by  repeated  threats  and  assaults  from  the  mob  ?  Did  the  State  ever 
make  one  decent  effort  to  defend  them  as  fellow  citizens  in  their 
rights,  or  to  redress  their  wrongs  ?  Let  the  conduct  of  its  gover 
nors,  attorneys,  and  the  fate  of  their  final  petitions  answer.  Have 
any  who  plundered  and  openly  massacred  the  Mormons  ever  been 
brought  to  the  punishment  due  to  their  crimes  ?  Let  the  boasting 
murderers  of  begging  and  helpless  infancy  answer.  Has  the  State 
ever  remunerated,  even  those  known  to  be  innocent,  for  the  loss 
of  either  their  property  or  their  arms  ?  Did  either  the  pulpit  or 
the  press  throughout  the  state  raise  a  note  of  remonstrance  or 
alarm  ?  Let  the  clergymen  who  abetted,  and  the  editors  who  en 
couraged  the  mob  answer."  ' 


320  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

from  all  his  friends  and  adds  in  italics, — '  If  we  de 
sire  to  avoid  insult  we  must  be  ready  to  repel  it.' 

It  was  as  a  political  agitator  that  the  prophet  took 
up  a  role  that  indirectly  led  to  his  death.  Nothing 
could  show  better  the  reach  of  his  schemes  than  the 
following  document: — 

'  Duty  of  the  Saints  in  relation  to  their  persecutors,  as 
set  forth  by  Joseph,  the  Prophet,  while  in  Liberty  Jail, 
Clay  County,  Missouri,  March,  1839  : — And  again,  we 
would  suggest  for  your  consideration  the  propriety  of  all 
the  saints  gathering  up  a  knowledge  of  all  the  facts,  and 
sufferings  and  abuses  put  upon  them  by  the  people  of  this 
state ; 

And  also  of  all  the  property  and  amount  of  damages 
which  they  have  sustained,  both  of  character  and  per 
sonal  injuries,  as  well  as  real  property ; 

And  also  the  names  of  all  persons  that  have  had  a  hand 
in  their  oppressions,  as  far  as  they  can  get  hold  of  them 
and  find  them  out ; 

And  perhaps  a  committee  can  be  appointed  to  find  out 
these  things,  and  to  take  statements,  and  affidavits,  and 
also  to  gather  up  the  libelous  publications  that  are  afloat, 

And  all  that  are  in  the  magazines,  and  in  the  encyclo 
pedias,  and  all  the  libelous  histories  that  are  published, 
and  are  writing,  and  by  whom,  and  present  the  whole 
concatenation  of  diabolical  rascality,  and  nefarious  and 
murderous  impositions  that  have  been  practiced  upon  this 
people, 

That  we  may  not  only  publish  to  all  the  world,  but 
present  them  to  the  heads  of  government  in  all  their  dark 
and  hellish  hue,  as  the  last  effort  which  is  enjoined  on  us 
by  our  Heavenly  Father,  before  we  can  fully  and  com 
pletely  claim  that  promise  which  shall  call  him  forth  from 
his  hiding  place,  and  also  that  the  whole  nation  may  be 
left  without  excuse  before  he  can  send  forth  the  power  of 
his  mighty  arm.' 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  321 

To  sum  up  Joseph's  manifold  worldly  activities 
from  his  community  storehouse  in  Ohio,  to  his  prop 
osition  to  establish  a  territorial  government,  within 
the  bounds  of  the  State  of  Illinois,12  to  do  this— is  to 
run  upon  a  paradox:  he  was  jack-of-all  trades,  yet 
withal  master  of  his  followers.  His  death  was 
counted  a  martyrdom;  his  name  was  speedily 
canonized;  in  his  portraits  a  halo  was  drawn  about 
his  head.  How  the  prophet  gained  his  supremacy, 
how  he  met  disaffection,  how  at  the  last  his  hold  on 
the  faithful  became  absolute,  is  a  story  that  needs 
telling.  Smith's  relations  to  his  aiders  and  abettors 
must  here  be  touched  upon.  One  defender  says 
that  Joseph's  'easy  good-natured  way,  allowing 
every  one  was  honest,  drew  around  him  hypocrites, 
false  brethren,  apostates;  for  they  having  mingled 
in  his  greatness,  knew  where  and  when  to  take  ad 
vantage  of  his  -weakness.' 

Relying  on  statements  like  these,  some  critics 
have  explained  the  success  of  early  Mormonism 

13  Compare  engrossed  petition  in  Berrian  collection,  in  which  it 
is  proposed  that  the  Mayor  of  Nauvoo,  [Joseph  Smith,  junior] 
shall  have  the  power  '  to  call  to  his  aid  a  sufficient  number  of 
United  States  forces,  in  connection  with  the  Nauvoo  Legion,  to 
repel  the  invasion  of  mobs,  keep  the  public  peace,  and  protect  the 
innocent  from  the  unhallowed  ravages  of  lawless  banditti  that  es 
cape  justice  on  the  Western  Frontier;  and  also  to  preserve  the 
power  and  dignity  of  the  Union.  And  be  it  further  ordained  that 
the  officers  of  the  United  States  Army  are  hereby  required  to  obey 
the  requisitions  of  this  ordinance.' 


322     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

as  due  to  Smith's  luck  in  the  choice  of  partners. 
As  Harris  had  supplied  the  money,  so  Pratt  sup 
plied  the  eloquence,  and  Rigdon  the  brains.  The 
antithesis  is  too  neat  to  be  true.  Smith  may  have 
been  the  unwitting  tool  of  the  precious  pair  from 
Kirtland,  yet  from  the  first  the  author  and  pro 
prietor  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  stood  in  the  fore 
ground.  Again,  to  make  Rigdon  the  chief  actor, 
speaking  through  the  mask  of  the  prophet,  is  a 
self-contradiction.  Thus  the  revelation  of  August, 
1831,  says,  in  part — 'And  now  behold  I  say  unto 
you,  I  the  Lord  am  not  pleased  with  my  servant 
Sidney  Rigdon,  he  exalted  himself  in  his  heart, 
and  received  not  my  counsel,  but  grieved  the 
Spirit:  wherefore  his  writing  is  not  acceptable 
unto  the  Lord.'  A  little  while  after  this,  Smith  thus 
rebuked,  in  his  own  name,  another  of  his  associates: 
— 'William  E.  McLellin,  the  wisest  man,  in  his 
own  estimation,  having  more  learning  than  sense, 
endeavored  to  write  a  commandment  like  unto  one 
of  the  least  of  the  Lord's,  but  failed.  .  .  .  The 
elders  and  all  present,  that  witnessed  this  vain  at 
tempt,  renewed  their  faith  in  the  truth  of  the  com 
mandments  and  revelations  which  the  Lord  had 
given  to  the  church  through  my  instrumentality. ' 

But  even  before  Rigdon  and  Company  had  ap 
peared  in  New  York  State,  Smith  was  asserting  his 
supremacy.  In  the  second  conference  of  the  church 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  323 

held  at  Fayette,  while  as  yet  only  First  Elder,  Joseph 
succeeded  in  suppressing  competition  in  occult 
activities.  When  Hyrum  Page  received  revelat 
ions  through  his  rival  'stone,'  the  prophet  was  'in 
great  distress  of  mind  and  body,  and  scarcely  knew 
how  to  meet  the  exigency.'  Newel  Knight,  who 
occupied  the  same  room  with  him,  goes  on  to  say 
that,  after  considerable  investigation  and  discussion, 
the  prophet  induced  '  Brother  Page,  Oliver  Cow- 
dery  and  the  Whitmers  to  renounce  the  bogus 
stone. ' 13  Soon  after  this,  the  same  narrator  proceeds, 
there  was  a  division  of  feeling  in  the  Colesville 
branch,  because  Sister  Peck  contradicted  one  of 
Joseph's  revelations.  The  brethren  and  sisters  were 
thereupon  told  that  '  they  must  repent  of  what  they 
had  done,  renew  their  covenants  and  uphold  the 
authorities  placed  over  them.' 

But  to  hurry  through  the  tale:  In  1833,  Smith 
was  accused  of  seeking  after  monarchical  power 
and  authority;  in  pantomimic  answer  he  instituted 
the  ceremony  of  washing  feet,  'girding  himself 
with  a  towel  and  washing  the  feet  of  the  elders.' 
In  1836,  a  great  apostasy  took  place  in  the  church 
at  Kirtland,  and  within  three  years  the  Three  Wit- 
is  « Journal,'  pp.  64,  65.  Compare  «  Book  of  Commandments,' 
Chapter  30: — 'And  again  thou  shalt  take  thy  brother  Hiram  be 
tween  him  and  thee  alone,  and  tell  him  that  those  things  which  he 
hath  written  from  that  stone  are  not  of  me,  and  that  Satan  de- 
ceiveth  him.' 


324    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

nesses  were  cut  off.  In  the  excommunication 
David  Whitmer,  the  anti-polygamist,  is  com 
pared  to  Balaam's  ass,  Martin  Harris  is  called  a 
negro  with  a  white  skin,  while  all  the  '  disenters,'  says 
the  prophet  'are  so  far  beneath  my  contempt  that 
to  notice  any  of  them  would  be  too  great  a  sacrifice 
for  a  gentleman  to  make.' 14 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  most  Mormon  converts 
were  of  Anglo-Saxon  stock,  it  is  almost  incon 
ceivable  that  Smith  retained  any  influence  over 
them.16  Yet  in  the  midst  of  the  Missouri  troubles, 

14 «  Elders'  Journal,'  1837. 

18  Yet  compare  Bancroft,  p.  82 : — «  The  earliest  clerk  service 
rendered  the  prophet  Joseph,  of  which  there  is  any  account,  was 
by  Martin  Harris;  Joseph's  wife,  Emma,  then  Oliver  Cowdery, 
who,  as  is  claimed,  wrote  the  greater  portion  of  the  original  manu 
script  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  as  he  translated  it  from  the  gold 
plates  by  the  urim  and  thummim  which  he  obtained  with  the 
plates.  In  March,  1831,  John  Whitmer  was  appointed  to  keep  the 
church  record  and  history  continually,  Oliver  having  been  ap 
pointed  to  other  labors.  Whitmer  was  assisted,  temporarily,  on 
occasions  of  absence  or  illness  by  Warren  Parrish.  At  a  meeting 
of  high  council  at  Kirtland,  Sept.  14,  1835,  ^  was  decided  that 
"  Oliver  Cowdery  be  appointed,  and  that  he  act  hereafter  as  re 
corder  for  the  church,"  Whitmer  having  just  been  called  to  be 
editor  of  the  Messenger  and  Advocate.  At  a  general  conference 
held  in  Far  West,  April  6,  1838,  John  Corrill  and  Elias  Higbee 
were  appointed  historians,  and  George  W.  Robinson  "  general 
church  recorder  and  clerk  for  the  first  presidency."  On  the  death 
of  Elder  Robert  B.  Thompson,  which  occurred  at  Nauvoo  on  the 
twenty-seventh  of  August,  1841,  in  his  obituary  it  is  stated: 
"  Nearly  two  years  past  he  had  officiated  as  scribe  to  President 
Joseph  Smith  and  clerk  for  the  church,  which  important  stat- 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  325 

of  which  the  prophet  was  no  small  cause,  the  ab 
negation  of  the  faithful  remnant  was  well-nigh 
absolute.  Governor  Boggs,  '  knave,  butcher  and 
murderer,'  as  Joseph  called  him,  had  just  issued 
his  'exterminating  order,'  when  the  folowing 
episode  took  place,  says  Elder  Stevenons: — 'In 
order  to  show  how  particular  the  prophet  was 
regarding  the  revelations  which  he  received  from 
the  Lord,  I  will  relate  an  incident  which  occurred  in 
Liberty  Jail.  While  the  prophet  was  receiving  a 
revelation,  the  late  Bishop  Alexander  McRae  was 
writing  as  Joseph  received  it.  Upon  this  occasion 
Brother  McRae  suggested  a  slight  change  in  the 
wording  of  the  revelation,  when  Joseph  sternly 
asked :  "Do  you  know  who  you  are  writing  for  ? " 
Brother  McRae,  who  at  once  discovered  his  mistake, 
begged  the  prophet's  pardon  for  undertaking  to  cor 
rect  the  word  of  the  Lord.' 18 

Smith  spoke  ex-cathedra;  he  also  made  assump 
tions  as  to  temporal  power.  But  theocracy  was  no 
sinecure  in  the  far  West.  From  the  sentimental 
point  of  view,  the  persecutions  of  the  Saints  in 

ions  he  filled  with  that  dignity  and  honor  befitting  a  man  of  God." 
During  the  expulsion  from  Missouri,  and  the  early  settlement  of 
Nauvoo,  James  Muiholland,  "William  Clayton,  and  perhaps  others 
rendered  temporary  service  in  this  line  until  the  I3th  of  December, 
1841,  when  Willard  Richards  was  appointed  recorder,  general 
clerk,  and  private  secretary  to  the  prophet.' 
18 '  Reminiscences,'  p.  42. 


326    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Missouri  mobs  deservedly  called  out  sympathetic 
mass-meetings  in  the  East.17  As  to  the  political 
merits  of  the  case,  the  psychologist  is  obliged  to 
make  a  Missouri  compromise, — if  some  of  the 
Borderers  were  ruffians,  some  of  the  Saints  were 
sinners.  But  as  regards  the  person  of  the  founder 
of  Mormonism,  the  conflict  between  church  and  state 
must  have  had  far-reaching  effects.  As  some  out 
sider,  who  saw  the  prophet  at  the  time,  expressed  it, 
'Joseph  Smith  then  endured  bodily  affliction  and  great 
mental  suffering.'  But  Joseph's  struggles  with  a 
cruel  world  were  not  confined  to  one  year;  they  were 
spread  over  a  dozen.  From  the  time  he  was  tarred 
and  feathered  in  Ohio  by  'a  banditti  of  blacklegs, 
religious  bigots,  and  cut-throats,'  to  the  time  he  was 
'  kidnapped  in  Missouri  through  the  diabolical 
rascality  of  Boggs,' — he  was  not  only  pestered  with 
forty-nine  civil  suits,  but  was  so  harried  about  that 
once,  when  moving  to  a  new  place,  he  spoke  of 
being  attacked  by  '  the  first  regular  mob.' 

A  final  ticklish  question  now  comes  up.     Consid 
ering  Joseph  Smith's  abnormal  ancestry,  his  emo- 


17  Knight,  p.  83,  « One  large  party  of  women  and  children,  pro 
tected  only  by  six  men,  wandered  into  the  prairie  south,  and  their 
tracks  could  be  followed  by  the  blood  stains  on  the  ground ;  the 
prairie  grass  had  been  burnt,  and  the  sharp  stubble  lacerated  their 
uncovered  feet,  cutting  and  wounding  them  in  a  terrible  manner ; 
thus  they  wandered  about  for  several  days.' 


v 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  327 

tional  environment,  and  his  lifelong  instability,  was 
not  his  mind,  at  the  last,  seriously  affected  ? 

The  prophet's  utterances  within  a  few  months  of 
his  death  read  like  the  utterances  of  a  madman,  yet 
political  aspirations  may  have  turned  his  head  in 
only  a  figurative  sense.  His  references  to  '  cata 
mount  politicians '  and  the  '  imbecility  of  American 
statesmen'  may  have  been  the  mere  pleasantries  of 
the  stump-speaker,  yet  his  acts  during  these  times 
betoken  more  than  a  restless  fancy.  Again  and 
again  he  went  far  out  of  his  way  in  pursuit  of  his 
visionary  aims.  He  called  on  President  Van  Buren, 
with  a  claim  on  the  public  treasury  amounting  to 
$1,381,044.55^.  Having  failed  to  obtain  redress 
from  Congress,  Smith  penned  a  letter  of  inquiry  to 
Henry  Clay,  asking:  'What  will  be  your  rule  of 
action  relative  to  us  as  a  people,  should  fortune 
favor  your  ascension  to  the  chief  magistracy  ? ' 18 
The  reply  from  Ashland  was  courteous,  but  non 
committal.  Smith  thereupon  retorted  with  an 
abusive  letter,  called  the  Whig  candidate  a  black-leg, 
and — ran  for  President  himself. 

The  Times  and  Seasons  pushed  the  Smith-Rigdon 
ticket,  and  urged  the  Saints  to  vote  for  'Joseph 
Smith,  the  smartest  man  in  the  United  States.'  On 
February  7th,  1844,  the  prophet  completed  his  ad 
dress  entitled,  Views  of  the  Powers  and  Policy  of 

"  '  The  Martyrs,'  p.  50. 


328  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

the  Government  of  the  United  States,  reinforcing 
his  arguments  with  quotations  from  various  docu 
ments,  authors  and  languages, — among  others  the 
Constitution,  Addison,  French,  Webster,  Italian, 
Adams  the  elder,  Thomas  Jefferson,  Madison,  Mon 
roe,  Hebrew,  the  Magna  Charta,  Adams  the  younger, 
Jackson,  Latin,  Chaldean,  Dutch  and  Greek. 

Whether  Smith  was  now  actually  demented  is  for 
the  alienist  to  decide.  But  adding  his  latest  utter 
ances  to  his  earliest  visionary  seizures,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  psychic  coordination  had  dis 
appeared,  and  that  heredity  had  passed  down  those 
abnormal  tendencies  which  mark  the  degenerate.19 
One  is  not  obliged  to  believe  that  Joseph's  '  visions ' 
were  due  to  epilepsy  of  a  masked  variety.  Heredity, 
as  understood  by  the  alienist,  ignores  any  definite 
type  of  disease,  yet  it  makes  much  of  mental 
stigmata.  Chief  among  these  are  marked  sen 
suality,  and  exaggerated  traits  of  vanity  and  self- 
conceit.  In  Smith's  case  there  is  abundant  evi 
dence  of  the  former  in  his  polygamous  practices, 
but  only  the  latter  need  here  be  instanced.  The 
same  visitor  at  Nauvoo,  who  had  given  a  not  un 
favorable  opinion  of  the  prophet,  speaks  of  him  as 
a  great  egotist.  '  He  touched  as  usual  on  his  pe 
culiar  doctrines,  .  .  .  became  much  excited, 
talked  incessantly  about  himself,  what  he  had  done 

»»  Compare  Thomas  Ribot,  •  The  Diseases  of  Personality,'  1894. 


FINAL  ACTIVITIES  329 

and  could  do  more  than  other  mortals,  and  remarked 
that  he  was  '  a  giant,  physically  and  mentally.' 
This  utterance  was  reported  to  have  been  made 
about  a  year  before  Smith's  assassination,  which  oc 
curred  June  27th,  1844. 

But  the  prophet's  own  written  words  are  the 
final  test  of  his  mental  condition.  The  statement  of 
April,  1844,  would  be  incredible,  were  it  not  corrob 
orated  by  the  statement  of  November,  1843: — 

'  I  know  more  than  all  the  world  put  together.' 
***** 

'  I  combat  the  error  of  ages ;  I  meet  the  violence  of 
mobs  ;  I  cope  with  illegal  proceedings  from  executive  au 
thority  ;  I  cut  the  Gordian  knot  of  powers,  and  I  solve 
mathematical  problems  of  universities  WITH  TRUTH,  dia 
mond  truth,  and  GOD  is  MY  RIGHT-HAND  MAN.' 


APPENDIX  J 
CONTENTS  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON 


APPENDIX  I 

CONTENTS  OF  THE   BOOK  OF  MORMON 

'  FIRST  BOOK  OF  NEPHI.  Language  of  the  record; 
Nephi's  abridgment;  Lehi's  dream;  Lehi  departs  into 
the  wilderness;  Nephi  slayeth  Laban;  Sariah  com 
plains  of  Lehi's  vision;  contents  of  the  brass  plates; 
Ishmael  goes  with  Nephi;  Nephi's  brethren  rebel, 
and  bind  him;  Lehi's  dream  of  the  tree,  rod,  etc.; 
Messiah  and  John  prophesied  of;  olive  branches 
broken  off;  Nephi's  vision  of  Mary;  of  the  cruci 
fixion  of  Christ;  of  darkness  and  earthquake;  great 
abominable  church;  discovery  of  the  promised  land; 
Bible  spoken  of;  book  of  Mormon  and  holy  ghost 
promised;  other  books  come  forth;  Bible  and  book 
of  Mormon  one;  promises  to  the  Gentiles;  two 
churches;  the  work  of  the  Father  to  commence;  a 
man  in  white  robes  (John);  Nephites  come  to 
knowledge;  rod  of  iron;  the  sons  of  Lehi  take 
wives;  director  found  (ball);  Nephi  breaks  his  bow; 
directors  work  by  faith;  Ishmael  died;  Lehi  and 
Nephi  threatened;  Nephi  commanded  to  build  a 
ship;  Nephi  about  to  be  worshipped  by  his  breth- 
333 


334    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

ren;  ship  finished  and  entered;  dancing  in  the  ship; 
Nephi  bound;  ship  driven  back;  arrived  on  the 
promised  land;  plates  of  ore  made;  Zenos,  Neum, 
and  Zenock;  Isaiah's  writing;  holy  one  of  Israel. 

'  Second  Book  of  Nephi.  Lehi  to  his  sons;  oppo 
sition  in  all  things;  Adam  fell  that  man  might  be; 
Joseph  saw  our  day;  a  choice  seer;  writings  grow 
together;  prophet  promised  to  the  Lamanites; 
Joseph's  prophecy  on  brass  plates;  Lehi  buried; 
Nephi's  life  sought;  Nephi  separated  from  Laman; 
temple  built;  skin  of  blackness;  priests,  etc.,  con 
secrated;  make  other  plates;  Isaiah's  words  by 
Jacob;  angels  to  a  devil;  spirits  and  bodies  reunited; 
baptism;  no  kings  upon  this  land;  Isaiah  prophes- 
ieth;  rod  of  the  stem  of  Jesse;  seed  of  Joseph 
perisheth  not;  law  of  Moses  kept;  Christ  shall  shew 
himself;  signs  of  Christ,  birth  and  death;  whisper 
from  the  dust;  book  sealed  up;  priestcraft  for 
bidden;  sealed  book  to  be  brought  forth;  three  wit 
nesses  behold  the  book;  the  words  (read  this,  I 
pray  thee);  seal  up  the  book  again;  their  priests 
shall  contend;  teach  with  their  learning,  and  deny 
the  holy  ghost;  rob  the  poor;  a  bible,  a  bible;  men 
judged  of  the  books;  white  and  a  delightsome 
people;  work  commences  among  all  people;  lamb 
of  God  baptized;  baptism  by  water  and  holy  ghost. 

1  Book  of  Jacob.  Nephi  anointeth  a  king;  Nephi 
dies;  Nephites  and  Lamanites;  a  righteous  branch 


CONTENTS  OF  BOOK  OF  MORMON    335 

from  Joseph;  Lamanites  shall  scourge  you;  more 
than  one  wife  forbidden;  trees,  waves,  and  moun 
tains  obey  us;  Jews  look  beyond  the  mark;  tame 
olive-tree;  nethermost  part  of  the  vineyard;  fruit 
laid  up  against  the  season;  another  branch;  wild 
fruit  had  overcome;  lord  of  the  vineyard  weeps; 
branches  overcome  the  roots;  wild  branches  plucked 
off;  Sherem,  the  anti-Christ;  a  sign,  Sherem  smit 
ten  ;  Enos  takes  the  plates  from  his  father. 

'  The  Book  of  Enos.  Enos,  thy  sins  are  forgiven; 
records  threatened  by  Lamanites;  Lamanites  eat 
raw  meat. 

'The  Book  of  Jarom.  Nephites  wax  strong; 
Lamanites  drink  blood;  fortify  cities;  plates  de 
livered  to  Omni. 

'The  Book  of  Omni.  Plates  given  to  Amaron; 
plates  given  to  Chemish;  Mosiah  warned  to  flee; 
Zarahemla  discovered;  engravings  on  a  stone;  Cori- 
antumr  discovered;  his  parents  come  from  the 
tower;  plates  delivered  to  King  Benjamin. 

'The  words  of  Mormon.  False  Christs  and 
prophets. 

'  Book  of  Mosiah.  Mosiah  made  king;  the  plates 
of  brass,  sword,  and  director;  King  Benjamin 
teacheth  the  people;  their  tent  doors  toward  the 
temple;  coming  of  Christ  foretold;  beggars  not 
denied;  sons  and  daughters;  Mosiah  began  to 
reign;  Ammon,  etc.,  bound  and  imprisoned; 


336    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Limhi's  proclamation ;  twenty-four  plates  of  gold ; 
seer  and  translator. 

'  Record  of  ZenifT.  A  battle  fought;  King  Laman 
died;  Noah  made  king;  Abinadi  the  prophet;  res 
urrection;  Alma  believed  Abinadi;  Abinadi  cast 
into  prison  and  scourged  with  fagots;  waters  of 
Mormon;  the  daughters  of  the  Lamanites  stolen  by 
King  Noah's  priests;  records  on  plates  of  ore;  last 
tribute  of  wine;  Lamanites' deep  sleep;  King  Limhi 
baptized;  priests  and  teachers  labor;  Alma  saw  an 
angel;  Alma  fell  (dumb);  King  Mosiah's  sons 
preach  to  the  Lamanites;  translation  of  records; 
plates  delivered  by  Limhi;  translated  by  two 
stones;  people  back  to  the  Tower;  records  given 
to  Alma;  judges  appointed;  King  Mosiah  died; 
Alma  died;  Kings  of  Nephi  ended. 

'The  Book  of  Alma.  Nehor  slew  Gideon; 
Amlici  made  king;  Amlici  slain  in  battle;  Amlicites 
painted  red;  Alma  baptized  in  Sidon;  Alma's 
preaching;  Alma  ordained  elders;  commanded  to 
meet  often;  Alma  saw  an  angel;  Amulek  saw  an 
angel;  lawyers  questioning  Amulek;  coins  named; 
Zeesrom  the  lawyer;  Zeesrom  trembles;  election 
spoken  of;  Melchizedek  priesthood;  Zeesrom 
stoned;  records  burned;  prison  rent;  Zeesrom 
healed  and  baptized;  Nehor's  desolation;  Lamanites 
converted;  flocks  scattered  at  Sebus;  Ammon 
smote  off  arms;  Ammon  and  King  Lamoni;  King 


CONTENTS  OF  BOOK  OF  MORMON    337 

Lamoni  fell;  Ammon  and  the  queen;  king  and 
queen  prostrate;  Aaron,  etc.,  delivered;  Jerusalem 
built;  preaching  in  Jerusalem;  Lamoni's  father  con 
verted;  land  desolation  and  bountiful;  anti-Nephi- 
Lehies;  general  council;  swords  buried;  1,005 
massacred;  Lamanites  perish  by  fire;  slavery  for 
bidden;  anti-Nephi-Lehies  removed  to  Jershon, 
called  Ammonites;  tremendous  battle;  anti-Christ, 
Korihor;  Korihor  struck  dumb;  the  devil  in  the 
form  of  an  angel;  Korihor  trodden  down;  Alma's 
mission  to  Zoramites;  Rameumptom  (holy  stand); 
Alma  on  hillOnidah;  Alma  on  faith;  prophecy  of 
Zenos;  prophecy  of  Zenock;  Amulek's  knowledge 
of  Christ;  charity  recommended;  same  spirit 
possess  your  body;  believers  cast  out;  Alma  to 
Helaman;  plates  given  to  Helaman;  twenty-four 
plates;  Gazelem,  a  stone  (secret);  Liahona,  or  com 
pass;  Alma  to  Shiblon;  Alma  to  Corianton;  un 
pardonable  sin;  resurrection;  restoration;  justice  in 
punishment;  if,  Adam,  took,  tree,  life;  mercy  rob 
justice;  Moroni's  stratagem;  slaughter  of  Laman 
ites;  Moroni's  speech  to  Zerahemnah;  prophecy  of 
a  soldier;  Lamanites'  covenant  of  peace;  Alma's 
prophecy  400  years  after  Christ;  dwindle  in  unbe 
lief;  Alma's  strange  departure;  Amalickiah  leadeth 
away  the  people,  destroyeth  the  church;  standard 
of  Moroni;  Joseph's  coat  rent;  Jacob's  prophecy  of 
Joseph's  seed;  fevers  in  the  land,  plants  and  roots 


338     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

for  diseases;  Amalickiah's  plot;  the  king  stabbed; 
Amalickiah  marries  the  queen,  and  is  acknowledged 
king;  fortifications  by  Moroni;  ditches  filled  with 
dead  bodies;  Amalickiah's  oath;  Pahoran  appointed 
judge;  army  against  king-men;  Amalickiah  slain; 
Ammoron  made  king;  Bountiful  fortified;  dissen 
sions;  2,000  young  men;  Moroni's  epistle  to  Am 
moron;  Ammoron's  answer;  Lamanites  made 
drunk;  Moroni's  stratagem;  Helaman's  epistle  to 
Moroni;  Helaman's  stratagem;  mothers  taught 
faith;  Lamanites  surrendered;  city  of  Antiparah 
taken;  city  of  Cumeni  taken;  200  of  the  2,000 
fainted;  prisoners  rebel,  slain;  Manti  taken  by 
stratagem;  Moroni  to  the  governor;  governor's  an 
swer;  King  Pachus  slain;  cords  and  ladders  prepared; 
Nephihah  taken;  Teancum's  stratagem,  slain;  peace 
established;  Moronihah  made  commander;  Hela- 
man  died;  sacred  things,  Shiblon;  Moroni  died; 
5,400  emigrated  north;  ships  built  by  Hagoth; 
sacred  things  committed  to  Helaman;  Shiblon  died. 
'The  Book  of  Helaman.  Pahoran  died;  Pahoran 
appointed  judge;  Kishkumen  slays  Pahoran;  Pacu- 
meni  appointed  judge;  Zarahemla  taken;  Pacumeni 
killed;  Coriantumr  slain;  Lamanites  surrendered; 
Helaman  appointed  judge;  secret  signs  discovered 
and  Kishkumen  stabbed;  Gadianton  fled;  emigra 
tion  northward;  cement  houses;  many  books  and 
records;  Helaman  died;  Nephi  made  judge;  Neph- 


CONTENTS  OF  BOOK  OF  MORMON    339 

ites  become  wicked;  Nephi  gave  the  judgment-seat 
to  Cezoram;  Nephi  and  Lehi  preached  to  the  La- 
manites;  8,000  baptized;  Alma  and  Nephi  sur 
rounded  with  fire;  angels  administer;  Cezoram  and 
son  murdered;  Gadianton  robbers;  Gadianton  rob 
bers  destroyed;  Nephi's  prophecy;  Gadianton  rob 
bers  are  judges;  chief  judge  slain;  Seantum  de 
tected;  keys  of  the  kingdom;  Nephi  taken  away  by 
the  spirit;  famine  in  the  land;  Gadianton  band  de 
stroyed;  famine  removed;  Samuel's  prophecy; 
tools  lost;  two  days  and  a  night,  light;  sign  of  the 
crucifixion;  Samuel  stoned,  etc.;  angels  appeared. 

'Third  Book  of  Nephi.  Lachoneus  chief  judge; 
Nephi  receives  the  records;  Nephi's  strange  depart 
ure;  no  darkness  at  night;  Lamanites  become 
white;  Giddianhi  to  Lachoneus;  Gidgiddoni  chief 
judge;  Giddianhi  slain;  Zemnarihah  hanged;  rob 
bers  surrendered;  Mormon  abridges  the  records; 
church  begins  to  be  broken  up;  government  of  the 
land  destroyed;  chief  judge  murdered:  divided  into 
tribes;  Nephi  raises  the  dead;  sign  of  the  crucifix 
ion;  cities  destroyed,  earthquakes,  darkness,  etc.; 
law  of  Moses  fulfilled;  Christ  appears  to  Nephites; 
print  of  the  nails;  Nephi  and  others  called;  baptism 
commanded;  doctrine  of  Christ;  Christ  the  end  of 
the  law;  other  sheep  spoken  of;  blessed  are  the 
Gentiles;  Gentile  wickedness  on  the  land  of  Joseph; 
Isaiah's  words  fulfilled;  Jesus  heals  the  sick;  Christ 


340    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

blesses  children;  little  ones  encircled  with  fire; 
Christ  administers  the  sacrament;  Christ  teaches  his 
disciples;  names  of  the  twelve;  the  twelve  teach 
the  multitude;  baptism,  holy  ghost,  and  fire;  dis 
ciples  made  white;  faith  great;  Christ  breaks  bread 
again;  miracle,  bread  and  wine;  Gentiles  destroyed 
(Isaiah);  Zion  established;  from  Gentiles,  to  your 
seed;  sign,  Father's  work  commenced;  he  shall  be 
marred;  Gentiles  destroyed  (Isaiah);  New  Jeru 
salem  built;  work  commence  among  all  the  tribes; 
Isaiah's  words;  saints  did  arise;  Malachi's  proph 
ecy  ;  faith  tried  by  the  Booh  of  Mormon ;  chil 
dren's  tongues  loosed;  the  dead  raised;  baptism 
and  holy  ghost;  all  things  common;  Christ  appears 
again;  Moses,  church;  three  Nephites  tarry;  the 
twelve  caught  up;  change  upon  their  bodies. 

'  Book  of  Nephi,  son  of  Nephi.  Disciples  raise 
the  dead;  Zarahemla  rebuilt;  other  disciples  are 
ordained  in  their  stead;  Nephi  dies;  Amos  keeps 
the  records  in  his  stead;  Amos  dies,  and  his  son 
Amos  keeps  the  records;  prisons  rent  by  the  three; 
secret  combinations;  Ammaron  hides  the  records. 

'  Book  of  Mormon.  Three  disciples  taken  away; 
Mormon  forbidden  to  preach;  Mormon  appointed 
leader;  Samuel's  prophecy  fulfilled;  Mormon  makes 
a  record;  lands  divided;  the  twelve  shall  judge; 
desolation  taken;  women  and  children  sacrificed; 
Mormon  takes  the  records  hidden  in  Shim;  Mor- 


CONTENTS  OF  BOOK  OF  MORMON    341 

mon  repents  of  his  oath  and  takes  command;  com 
ing  forth  of  records;  records  hid  in  Cumorah; 
230,000  Nephites  slain;  shall  not  get  gain  by  the 
plates;  these  things  shall  come  forth  out  of  the 
earth;  the  state  of  the  world;  miracles  cease,  unbe 
lief;  disciples  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach; 
language  of  the  book. 

'Book  of  Ether.  Twenty-four  plates  found; 
Jared  cries  unto  the  Lord;  Jared  goes  down  to  the 
valley  of  Nimrod;  Deseret,  honey-bee;  barges 
built;  decree  of  God,  choice  land;  free  from  bond 
age;  four  years  in  tents  at  Moriancumer;  Lord 
talks  three  hours;  barges  like  a  dish;  eight  vessels, 
sixteen  stones;  Lord  touches  the  stones;  finger  of 
the  Lord  seen;  Jared's  brother  sees  the  Lord;  two 
stones  given;  stones  sealed  up;  goes  aboard  of 
vessels;  furious  wind  blows;  344  days'  passage; 
Orihah  anointed  king;  King  Shule  taken  captive; 
Shule's  sons  slay  Noah;  Jared  carries  his  father 
away  captive;  the  daughters  of  Jared  dance;  Jared 
anointed  king  by  the  hand  of  wickedness;  Jared 
murdered  and  Akish  reigns  in  his  stead;  names  of 
animals;  poisonous  serpents;  Riplakish's  cruel 
reign;  Morianton  anointed  king;  poisonous  serp 
ents  destroyed;  many  wicked  kings;  Moroni  on 
faith;  miracles  by  faith;  Moroni  sees  Jesus;  New 
Jerusalem  spoken  of;  Ether  cast  out;  records  fin 
ished  in  the  cavity  of  a  rock;  secret  combinations; 


342     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

war  in  all  the  land;  King  Gilead  murdered  by  his 
high  priest;  the  high  priest  murdered  by  Lib;  Lib 
slain  by  Coriantumr;  dead  bodies  cover  the  land 
and  none  to  bury  them;  2,000,000  men  slain;  hill 
Ramah;  cries  rend  the  air;  sleep  on  their  swords; 
Coriantumr  slays  Shiz;  Shiz  falls  to  the  earth; 
records  hidden  by  Ether. 

'  Book  of  Moroni.  Christ's  words  to  the  twelve; 
manner  of  ordination;  order  of  sacrament;  order  of 
baptism;  faith,  hope  and  charity;  baptism  of  little 
children;  women  fed  on  their  husbands'  flesh; 
daughters  murdered  and  eaten;  sufferings  of 
women  and  children;  cannot  recommend  them  to 
God;  Moroni  to  the  Lamanites;  420  years  since  the 
sign;  records  sealed  up  (Moroni);  gifts  of  the 
spirits;  God's  word  shall  hiss  forth.' 


APPENDIX  II 
EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS 


APPENDIX  II 

EPILEPSY   AND   THE   VISIONS1 

THE  diagnosis  of  an  apparent  epilepsy  in  Smith's 
visionary  seizures  is  difficult  for  three  reasons: — 
first,  the  descriptions  come  from  incompetent  ob 
servers;  second,  the  paroxysms  present  great  divers 
ity  of  form ;  third,  there  is  an  absence  of  definite 
pathological  stigmata.  There  are  no  photographs 
extant  from  which  cranial  malformations  might  be 
observed;  yet  all  the  portraits  of  Smith  show^rj 
inferior  cranial  angle,  and  an  overdeveloped  cereb 
ellum. 

But  the  prognosis  is  assured  from  the  antecedents 
of  the  patient.  The  case  is  not  idiopathic;  there 
are  known  causes  furnishing  an  almost  complete 
etiology.  Foremost  is  heredity.  Joseph's  maternal 

1  References.  '  Archiv  fur  Psychiatric,'  8,  200  seq ;  Charcot, 
Bouchard  et  Brissaud,  '  Traite  de  Medecine,'  Paris,  1894, — Dutil 
'Epilepsie';  Hughlings- Jackson,  in  Brain  II,  179,  ff . ;  Kraft- 
Ebing,  '  Lehrbuch  de  Psychiatric,'  Stuttgart,  1897—'  Das  Epilep- 
tesche  Irre  in ' ;  E.  D.  Starbuck,  '  The  Psychology  of  Religion,' 
New  York,  1899  ;  H.  von  Ziemsen,  '  Cyclopaedia  of  the  Practice  of 
Medicine,'  New  York,  1877,  Volume  XIV,— Prof.  H.  Northnagel, 
« Epilepsy.' 

345 


346    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

grandfather  had  'fits.'  The  hallucinations  of  Solo 
mon  Mack  at  the  age  of  seventy-six,  have  been 
already  traced  to  temporary  causes,  such  as  rheu 
matism.  Of  Solomon's  many  ailments  and  acci 
dents,  three  have  especial  bearing  on  the  problem. 
Some  time  before  1757,  at  about  the  age  of  twenty- 
two,  he  writes,  '  I  had  a  terrible  fever  sore  on  my 
leg,  which  had  well-nigh  proved  fatal  to  my  life." 
This  is  to  be  noticed  only  because  Joseph  had  a 
similar  trouble,  at  a  somewhat  earlier  age.  Again 
Solomon  relates  that  while  visiting  his  son,  who 
was  cutting  trees,  '  A  tree  fell  on  me  and  crushed 
me  almost  all  to  pieces,  beat  the  breath  out  of  my 
body,  my  son  took  me  up  for  dead,  I  however  soon 
.recovered,  but  have  not  to  this  day  recovered  the 
use  of  my  limbs,  which  was  thirty-four  years  ago. 
.  .  .  I  lay  sixty  days  on  my  back  and  never 
moved  or  turned  to  one  side  or  the  other,  the 
skin  was  worn  off  my  backbone  one  end  to  the 
other."  This  story  is  corroborated  by  the  account 
of  an  eyewitness  at  Royalton,  Vermont,  who  por 
trayed  Solomon  Mack  as  '  an  infirm  old  man,  who 
used  to  ride  around  on  horseback,  on  a  side-sad 
dle." 

These    two    episodes    are    perhaps    immaterial, 
but  the  third  is  not.     Solomon  again  says,   '  Soon 

3  •  Narrative,'  p.  5.  * « Narrative,'  p.  10. 

4  Historical  Magazine,  November,  1870. 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       347 

after  this  I  was  wounded  by  a  limb  falling  from  a 
tree  upon  my  head,  which  again  nearly  deprived  me 
of  life.  I  afterwards  was  taken  with  a  fit.'5  The 
date  of  this  affliction  is  extremely  significant.  It 
happened  about  a  year  before  the  birth  of  Lucy 
Mack,  Solomon's  last  child  and  the  mother  of  the 
prophet.6  This  fit,  attributable  to  traumatic  lesion,  is 
thus  described  by  the  patient  himself: — '  I  afterwards 
was  taken  with  a  fit,  when  traveling,  with  an  axe 
under  my  arm,  on  Winchester  hills,  the  face  of  the 
land  was  covered  with  ice.  I  was  senseless  from 
one,  until  five  p.  M.  When  I  came  to  myself  I  had 
my  axe  still  under  my  arm.  I  was  all  covered  with 
blood  and  much  cut  and  bruised.  When  I  came  to 
my  senses  I  could  not  tell  where  I  had  been  nor 
where  I  was  going  .  .  .  was  under  the  doc 
tor's  care  all  the  winter.'7  Alcoholism,  as  a  pro- 
vocative  of  epilepsy,  cannot  be  causally  connected 
with  these  seizures.  Solomon  had  been  an  army 
sutler  for  twenty-seven  years,8  but  his  acknowl 
edged  drunkenness  came  only  after  the  Tunbridge 
episode.  As  a  sailor  on  the  Atlantic,  he  confesses 
to  a  chronic  intoxication  and  adds,  'the  devil  had 
got  hold  on  me  and  I  served  him  well.'9 

6<  Narrative,'  p.  12. 

8  The  date  of  the  '  Narrative '  is  not  later  than  1810;  Lucy  was 
born  in  1776. 

"Narrative,'  p.  12. 
s  •  Narrative/  Errata. 
9 «  Narrative,'  p.  15. 


348     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Of  the  other  branch  of  this  first  generation  much 
less  is  known.  Joseph's  paternal  grandfather,  Asael 
Smith,  nicknamed  '  crook-necked '  Smith,  at  the 
age  of  eighty-six,  is  spoken  of  as  'just  recover 
ing  from  a  severe  fit '  and  of  '  weak  mind.' 10  There 
is  nothing  more  to  be  made  of  this  than  mental  fail 
ure  due  to  senility. 

Returning  to  the  more  significant  maternal  line, 
Joseph's  grandmother  Lydia  Gates  Mack,  at  the  age 
of  forty-seven,  had  'a  severe  fit  of  sickness.  She 
was  so  low  that  she,  as  well  as  her  friends,  entirely 
despaired  of  her  recovery.' n  She  was  however 
alive  in  1815,  aged  eighty.  Proceeding  to  the  sec 
ond  generation,  of  Joseph's  father,  only  two  slight 
illnesses  are  recorded,"  one  of  them  was,  curiously 
enough,  at  the  time  of  Joseph's  first  real  seizure. 
But  to  leave  the  ascendants,  it  is  noticeable  that  the 
collaterals  on  the  male  side  were  uniformly  healthy. 
Of  Joseph's  uncles,  Jason,  Daniel  and  Solomon  (2d) 
nothing  is  said;  Stephen  is  described  as  robust,  and 
as  being  ill  but  four  days  before  his  death.  It  is 
different  with  the  female  side.  Of  Lydia,  no  patho 
logical  details  are  given,  but  Lovisa,  despite  her 
'  miraculous  recovery '  died  of  consumption  within 


10 '  Biographical  Sketches,'  pp.  154,  155. 
11 '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  36. 

12  The  alleged  intoxication  of  Joseph,  senior,  was  charged  by  his 
enemies  only  after  the  removal  to  New  York  State. 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       349 

two  years,  and  Lovina  succumbed  to  the  same  dis 
ease  after  lingering  three  years.13 

As  to  the  mother  of  the  prophet,  her  hallucina 
tions  have  already  been  described;  the  coincident 
sickness  is  like  that  of  her  sisters.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-six,  after  the  birth  of  Alvin  and  Hyrum, 
Lucy  'took  a  heavy  cold,  which  caused  a  severe 
cough.  ...  A  hectic  fever  set  in,  which  threat 
ened  to  prove  fatal,  and  the  physician  pronounced 
my  case  to  be  confirmed  consumption.'  Of  the 
course  of  recovery  there  is  no  information,  but, 
in  middle  life,  judging  from  her  ability  for  hard 
work,  Lucy  appears  to  have  been  in  good  health. 
But  immediately  before  the  birth  of  Joseph,  in  1805, 
his  mother  was  in  indigence,  if  not  positive  want.1* 
It  was,  however,  not  until  181  1,  that  Joseph,  senior's 
mind  '  became  much  excited  upon  the  subject  of 
religion';  his  seven  visions  then  followed  at  the  rate 
of  one  a  year.  His  death,  at  seventy,  was  said  to 
be  due  to  the  '  eruption  of  a  blood  vessel.'  16 


13  «  Biographical  Sketches,'  Chapter  3. 

14  '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  56.     In  Sharon,  Windsor  County, 
Vermont,  she  says,  '  my  husband  rented  a  farm  of  my  father,  which 
he  cultivated  in  the  summer,  teaching  school  in  the  winter.     In 
this  way  my  husband   continued  laboring  for  a  few  years,  during 
which  time  our  circumstance  gradually  improved,  until  we  found 
ourselves  quite  comfortable  again.     In  the  meantime  we  had  a  son 
whom  we  called  Joseph.' 

15  «  Times  and  Seasons,'  5,  173. 


350    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Before  further  examination  of  Joseph's  neuro 
pathic  antecedents,  and  in  order  to  complete  the 
tale  of  the  generations,  a  word  may  be  said  concern 
ing  his  progeny.  From  sources  which  cannot  here 
be  divulged,  comes  the  significant  fact  that  Tits' 
have  reappeared,  not  in  the  fourth,16  but  in  the  fifth 
generation.  The  atavism  in  the  prophet's  case  is 
clear:  he  stands  midway  in  the  series.  As  to  the 
causes  productive  of  the  epileptic  tendency,  hered 
ity  has  its  acknowledged  primacy.  If  one  so 
pleases,  heredity  may  here  be  taken  in  its  broader 
sense  of  mere  '  nervousness '  in  the  ancestors.  In 
many  cases,  it  is  asserted,  the  parents  need  not  be 
directly  responsible,  for  a  neuropathic  tendency  in 
the  family  generally  suffices.  But  this  case  is  more 
pronounced;  the  grandsire's  first  'fit'  took  place 
about  the  age  of  forty-one,  the  first  ' vision '  of  the 
grandson  about  fourteen.  This  fulfils  the  condition 
that,  '  if  epilepsy  is  hereditary  the  descendants  are 
attacked  at  an  earlier  age  than  the  ascendants.' 

Besides  an  inherited  nervous  diathesis,  diseases 
furnished  foredisposing  causes.  More  is  made  of 
Joseph's  individual  vicissitudes  than  of  all  his  nine 
brothers  and  sisters  put  together.17  In  1811  all 

"Joseph  Smith,  junior's  first  child,  by  Emma  Hale,  died 
shortly  after  birth.  Compare  'Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  118. 
That  perjured  apostate  « Dr.'  Bennett,  eight  years  the  prophet's 
body  physician,  claims  that  it  was  a  monster. 

17  Of  these  the  following  are  noticed  :  Alvin,  the  first  child,  at 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       351 

the  children  had  'typhus'  [typhoid?]  in  Lebanon, 
N.  H.  Within  a  month  of  recovery,  at  the  age 
of  six,  Joseph  developed  a  'fever  sore,'  first  on 
the  breast,  then  on  the  leg;  the  latter  sore  being 
similar  to  that  of  his  grandfather  Mack's.  A  portion 
of  the  '  bone  of  the  leg '  was  removed  by  surgeons, 
without  the  use  of  anaesthetics.  At  the  age  of  ten, 
Joseph  was  still  lame;  in  the  forties  he  escaped  reg 
ular  military  duty  by  pleading  lameness  as  a  disa 
bility. 

If  a  nervous  diathesis,  an  infectious  fever,  and  an 
ulceration,  may  be  considered  likely  predisposing 
causes,  the  exciting  causes  of  the  seizures  are 
equally  marked.  Nervous  instability,  consequent 
on  protracted  religious  excitement,  at  the  time  of 
puberty,  has  been  elsewhere  treated,18  but  the  imme 
diate  exciting  cause  of  the  boy's  first  seizure  may  be 
laid  to  fright.  '  At  the  age  of  fourteen  ...  a 
gun  was  fired  across  his  pathway  ...  he  sprang 
to  the  door  much  frightened.' 19 

twenty-five  was  <  murdered '  by  a  doctor,  through  an  overdose  of 
calomel ;  Sophronia  recovers  of  typhus,  on  the  ninetieth  day « through 
prayer  ' ;  Samuel  died  at  thirty-two  from  '  fever  due  to  overexertion 
in  escaping  a  mob  ' ;  Ephraim  lived  but  eleven  days  after  his  birth ; 
Don  Carlos  died  at  twenty-five  of  consumption.  « Biographical 
Sketches,'  Chapter  xx,  etc. 

18  Above  Chapter  II.  The  'protracted  meetings '  in  Western 
New  York  revivals  took  from  eight  to  thirty  days,  often  from  sun 
rise  to  9  P.  M.  Hotchkin,  p.  165. 

is '  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  73. 


352     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Now  the  first  vision  may  be  explained  as  a 
migraine,  but  the  recurrence  of  this  psychic  aura,  in 
a  more  or  less  stereotyped  form,  along  with  other 
wise  inexplicable  injuries  and  contusions,  is  to  be 
laid  to  a  real  epilepsy.  Here  alcoholism  was  first  in 
the  list  of  provocative  causes.  Joseph's  confession 
as  to  the  '  weakness  of  youth,  foolish  errors,  divers 
temptations  and  gratifications  of  appetites  offensive 
in  the  sight  of  God,' — is  to  be  coupled  with  the  con 
fessions  of  his  adherents  that  he  sometimes  drank 
too  much  liquor.  The  frequency  of  his  intoxication 
cannot  be  determined;  along  with  Joseph,  senior,  he 
was  charged  by  his  enemies  with  public  drunken 
ness;  the  Mormons  themselves  acknowledge  at  least 
two  of  the  counts.  There  is  no  truth  whatever  in 
the  statement  that  both  parents  drank;  the  neuro 
pathic  condition  of  the  mother  was  transmitted.  That 
alcoholism  did  but  little  to  debilitate  Joseph  is  proved 
by  his  general  good  health  after  thirty.  It  was,  how 
ever,  a  provocative  agent  of  his  second  attack  at 
eighteen,  for  only  the  slightest  stimulation  was  neces 
sary  to  bring  about  a  repetition  of  the  first  attack. 

The  two  earliest  seizures  may  be  now  examined  in 
conjunction.  As  already  suggested,  the  theophanic 
portion  of  the  visions  may  be  largely  explained  as 
an  ophthalmic  migraine.  Whether  this  is  to  be  as 
sociated  with  a  partial  sensorial  epilepsy,  is  deter- 
minable,  in  one  case,  by  what  precedes,  in  the 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       353 

other  by  what  follows.  Collecting  the  terms  there 
are  the  following  expressions:  'a  pillar  of  light 
exactly  over  my  head,  above  the  brightness  of 
the  sun,  which  descended  gradually  until  it  fell 
upon  me.'  In  the  second  vision  the  details  are 
fuller  and  more  exact:  'On  a  sudden,  a  light 
like  that  of  day,  only  of  a  far  purer  and  more  glorious 
appearance  and  brightness  burst  into  the  room;  in 
deed  the  first  sight  was  as  though  the  house  was 
filled  with  a  consuming  fire.  ...  I  saw  the 
light  in  the  room  begin  to  gather  immediately  around 
the  person  of  him  who  had  been  speaking  to  me, 
and  it  continued  to  do  so,  until  the  room  was  again 
left  dark,  except  just  around  him,  when  instantly  I 
saw,  as  it  were,  a  conduit  open  right  up  into  heaven, 
and  he  ascended  up  till  he  entirely  disappeared, 
and  the  room  was  left  as  it  had  been  before  this 
heavenly  light  had  made  its  appearance.'  This  mani 
festation  was  repeated  twice  that  night,  once  on  the 
following  day,  and  also  throughout  the  series.  As 
usual  the  apparent  objective  manifestations  were 
actually  subjective  symptoms.  Their  similarity  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  in  ophthalmic  migraine  periodical 
attacks  tend  to  be  similar  in  the  same  patient.  The 
visual  disturbance  is  ushered  in  by  a  dimness  or 
blindness,  then  a  scintillating  scotoma  occupies  the 
outer  portions  of  the  visual  field.  Patients  expe 
riencing  this  symptom  for  the  first  time  cannot  give 


354    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

an  exact  account  of  it,  more  than  that  it  is  a  dazzling 
comparable  to  that  observed  in  looking  at  the  sun. 
But  with  repetition  there  comes  a  more  accurate  en- 
visagement,  as  in  the  second  vision  of  Joseph.  '  The 
luminous  ball  of  fire  enlarges;  its  centre  becomes 
obscure;  gradually  it  passes  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
visual  field  above  and  below,  and  the  patient  sees 
only  a  portion  of  it,  in  the  form  of  a  broken  lumi 
nous  line,  which  continues  to  vibrate  until  it  has  en 
tirely  disappeared.  Then  follows  a  phase  of  ex 
haustion  and  sometimes  somnolence.' 

These  sequela?  appear  in  the  second  vision,  but  to 
turn  to  the  prodromata  of  the  first.  Joseph  says 
that  in  this  time  of  great  excitement  his  mind  was 
in  a  state  of  'great  uneasiness/  his  feelings  'deep 
and  pungent,' and  he  'kept  himself  aloof.'  These 
are  the  remote  premonitory  symptoms  of  an  attack, 
when  the  patient  labors  under  a  singular  oppression 
two  or  three  days  beforehand  and  is  irritable,  sad  and 
secretive.  The  real  seizure  does  not  follow,  unless 
there  are  immediate  premonitory  symptoms.  These 
are  not  lacking  in  Joseph's  case;  the  '  thick  darkness ' 
may  be  explained  as  a  migrainous  scotoma,  but 
fuller  explanation  is  needed  of  Joseph's  additional 
statements:  'I  was  seized  upon  by  some  power  as 
to  bind  my  tongue;  I  was  ready  to  sink  into  despair, 
until  I  found  myself  delivered  from  the  enemy;  I 
saw  two  personages,  whose  brightness  and  glory 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       355 

defy  all  description,  one  of  whom  spake  unto  me/ 
Taken  in  order  and  with  proper  terminology  these 
phenomena  appear  to  constitute  the  real  epileptic 
aura.  After  the  gradually  increasing  melancholic 
depression,  the  patient  manifests:  first,  a  sudden 
terror;  second,  violent  palpitations  of  the  heart,  ac 
companied  by  a  difficulty  in  breathing  and  a  con 
striction  of  the  larynx;  third,  along  with  these 
symptoms  are  complex  visual  and  auditory  halluci 
nations  of  corporeal  figures,  such  as  of  fantastic  per 
sonages  who  carry  on  a  conversation  or  deliver  a 
message.  More  marked,  psychic,  sensitive  and  sens 
ory  prodromata  are  manifest  in  the  second  vision. 
Whether  this  first  psychic  paroxysm  was  followed 
by  a  real  seizure,  is  undeterminable.  It  is  not,  at 
any  rate,  the  classic  major  attack.  There  is  loss  of 
consciousness — *  when  I  came  to  myself ' — but  noth 
ing  from  which  general  convulsions  can  be  inferred. 
Nevertheless  the  sensorial  migraine  is  an  equivalent 
for  convulsive  paroxysms.  Again,  in  the  major  at 
tacks,  there  is  often  lacking  the  initial  cry,  tongue 
biting,  and  evacuations.  The  character  of  Joseph's 
seizures,  whether  they  are  the  mild  type,  the  transi 
tional  form,  or  merely  epileptoid,  is  to  be  gathered 
only  from  the  whole  series,  for  in  individual  cases, 
manifold  diversities  are  found,  even  in  the  features 
of  the  full  epileptic  attack. 
Turning  to  the  second  seizure,  it  represents  the 


356    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

more  essential  features  of  mental  and  motor  dis 
turbance,— a  verbal  deafness  and  feebleness  of  the 
limbs,  followed  by  exhaustion  and  somnolence. 
The  vision  proper  took  place  the  night  before  the 
real  seizure.  As  there  was  no  apparent  loss  of  con 
sciousness,  it  may  be  considered  merely  as  the  im 
mediate  premonition.  Moreover,  this  vision,  like 
the  first,  was  preceded  by  anxiety  and  disquietude 
— 'I  often  felt  condemned  for  my  weakness  and 
imperfections.'  As  an  immediate  prodroma,  it  is 
marked  by  more  exact  details.  The  parallel  account 
gives  these  extra  data.  The  celestial  messenger's  ap 
pearance  was  like  'fire,'  and  'produced  a  shock 
which  affected  the  whole  body.'  These  may  be 
explained  as  the  sensory  aura  of  red  color  (rothen 
flammenschein)  and  the  sensitive  aura  of  numbness 
(engourdissement). 

It  is  now  in  order  to  examine  alternative  expla 
nations.  Joseph's  second  vision  is  not  to  be  ex 
plained  as  a  vertigo,  in  which  either  the  patient 
feels  himself  turning,  or  external  objects  seem  to 
move  to  one  side.  This  night  vision  resembles  a 
particular  variety  of  epilepsy  denominated  'intel 
lectual  aura.'  It  begins  with  color  projections,  fol 
lowed  by  'seeing  faces';  the  auditory  sensation- 
warnings  being,  in  turn,  succeeded  by  '  hearing 
voices  '  (Hughlings-Jackson).  There  is  not  always 
loss  of  consciousness  but  a  state  of  semi-conscious- 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       35; 

ness  with  reminiscent  dreams.  (Compare: — 'I  lay 
musing  on  the  singularity  of  the  scene,  when  I  dis 
covered  the  same  heavenly  messenger  again.')  The 
manifestation  occurred  thrice  that  night.  Such 
hyperideation  was  a  precursory  sign  of  the  real  sei 
zure  which  occurred  on  the  following  day.  The 
lad's  mother  says,  'Joseph  stopped  quite  suddenly; 
seemed  to  be  in  a  very  deep  study.'  Being  hurried 
by  his  brother  he  'went  to  work  again  and  after 
laboring  a  short  time,  he  stopped  just  as  he  had 
done  before.  This  being  quite  unusual  and  strange, 
his  father  discovered  that  Joseph  was  very  pale.' 

Thus  far  the  case  appears  to  be  one  of  those  at 
tenuated  epileptic  attacks,  designated  vacuity, 
which  is  limited  to  a  loss  of  consciousness  with 
temporary  pallor,  but  the  patient  does  not  fall  or 
utter  a  cry.  '  Immovable,  with  his  eyes  fixed,  and  a 
strange  air,  he  remains  as  if  unconscious,  seeing 
nothing,  hearing  nothing,  in  a  sort  of  ecstasy.  Per 
haps  he  executes  certain  automatic  movements.  It 
all  lasts  only  several  seconds.  The  patient  shortly 
returns  to  himself,  takes  up  the  conversation  at  the 
point  where  he  had  left  off  or  returns  to  his  work ' 
(Dutil).  Joseph's  version  of  this  episode  is  as  fol 
lows:  Arising  'shortly  after'  the  night  vision,  he 
found  his  '  strength  so  exhausted '  as  rendered  him 
'entirely  unable'  to  work;  his  father  told  him  to  go 
home,  but  in  attempting  to  cross  the  fence  his 


358     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

'strength  entirely  failed';  he  'fell  helpless  on  the 
ground,  and  for  a  time  was  quite  unconscious  of 
anything.'  The  previous  night's  hallucination  of 
the  messenger  and  the  message  is  then  repeated. 
This  reproduction  of  the  seizure  under  the  apple- 
tree  was  followed  by  restlessness  and  exhaustion. 
Joseph  says,  '  I  left  the  field  and  went  to  the  place 
where  the  messenger  had  told  me  the  plates  were 
deposited.'  His  mother  adds,  'The  ensuing  even 
ing  Joseph  made  known  what  passed  between  him 
and  the  angel  while  he  was  at  the  place  where  the 
plates  were  deposited.  Sitting  up  late  that  evening, 
together  with  overexertion  of  mind  had  much  fa 
tigued  Joseph.'  Thus  the  after  effects  of  the  attack 
of  September  24th,  1823,  took  the  usual  form  of 
nervous  exhaustion,  a  veritable  nervous  discharge 
leaving  behind  a  state  of  collapse  corresponding  to 
the  intensity  of  this  discharge.  In  fact  these  are 
the  prominent  sequelae  of  all  the  fully  recorded 
visions.  After  the  fifth,  he  was  '  much  exhausted 
and  very  tired';  after  the  sixth,  'he  returned  to 
the  house,  weeping  for  grief  and  disappointment;' 
after  the  seventh,  he  was  'altogether  speechless 
from  fright  and  the  fatigue  of  running,'  and  'threw 
himself  upon  the  bed.' 

In  the  same  manner  the  state  of  coma  in  the  series 
is  uniform  in  occurrence,  though  varying  in  degree. 
In  the  first,  it  was  expressed  by  the  words — '  when 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       359 

I  came  to  myself;  in  the  second, — 'I  was  quite  un 
conscious  of  anything';  in  the  third,  he  'was  over 
come  by  the  powers  of  darkness  and  when  he  re 
covered,  the  angel  was  gone';  in  the  sixth,  'he  did 
not  get  home  till  the  night  was  far  spent';  in  the 
seventh,  '  he  dislocated  his  thumb,  which,  however, 
he  did  not  notice  until  he  came  within  sight  of  the 
house.' 

Loss  of  consciousness,  as  a  chief  criterion  of 
epilepsy,  has  been  here  emphasized.  Yet  the 
classic  convulsive  symptoms  are  by  no  means 
lacking,  hence  it  is  largely  from  their  effects  and 
after  marks  that  they  are  to  be  inferred.  There 
must,  however,  be  taken  into  account  the  lack  of 
clinical  data,  for,  with  the  exception  of  the  episode 
in  the  field  which  'attracted  the  attention  of  his 
father,'  the  seizures  took  place  away  from  observ 
ers.  Now  if  the  fact  that  the  most  elaborate  of  the 
hallucinations  was  nocturnal  excites  suspicion  of 
epilepsy,  the  fact  that  most  of  the  attacks  were  am 
bulatory  attacks,  away  from  home,  furnishes  cumu 
lative  evidence  of  true  epileptic  convulsions. 

To  anticipate  the  answer  to  an  important  question : 
Were  any  of  these  true  major  attacks  ?  The  second 
main  seizure  and  the  immediate  falling  '  helpless  to 
the  ground'  bespeak  a  spasmodic  innervation  of  the 
limbs.  Furthermore  the  dislocation  of  the  boy's 
thumb  in  the  last  attack  points  to  that  common 


360     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

epileptic  symptom  of  the  thumb  being  forcibly 
flexed  into  the  hand.  If  there  were  any  instances 
of  grand  mat,  the  tonic  and  clonic  spasms  cannot 
be  distinguished.  The  former,  as  sometimes  oc 
curs,  are  here  wanting,  unless  such  be  the  disloc 
ation  of  the  thumb.  But  the  more  rapid  and  violent 
convulsions,  with  consequent  wounds  and  excoria 
tions  of  the  skin,  are  to  be  gathered  from  collateral 
information.  The  form  of  the  hallucination  varies, 
but  these  accounts  agree  as  to  the  after  affects. 
One  reads,  'When  Joseph  got  the  plates,  on  his 
way  home,  he  was  met  by  what  appeared  to  be  a 
man,  who  struck  him  with  a  club  on  his  side, 
which  was  all  black  and  blue.'20  The  other  states, 
'As  he  returned  and  was  getting  over  the  fence, 
one  of  the  devils  struck  him  a  blow  on  his  side, 
where  a  black  and  blue  spot  remained  three  or  four 

\  i  ^' 

days.'21  These  ecchymoses  are  symptomatic  of 
rather  severe  convulsions.  The  variety  in  the  terms 
of  explanation — 'devils  struck,  angels  chastised, 
assassins  assaulted'  him — as  in  the  case  of  his 
grandfather,  shows  the  inability  of  the  patient  to 
explain  his  self-inflicted  injuries.  Again  in  the 
grand  mal  the  prodromata  are  lacking  in  half  the 
cases,  as  here,  but  unconsciousness  outlasts  the 

20  Tiffany1  s  Monthly,  May,  1859.    Interview  with  Martin  Harris. 

21  Historical  Magazine,  May,  1870,  p.  305.     Fayette  Lapham  in 
an  interview  with  Joseph  Smith,  senior,  in  1830. 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       361 

spasm.  Joseph  on  the  other  hand  appears  to  have 
been  conscious  of  a  series  of  '  shocks '  over  the 
whole  body.  In  the  third  seizure,  according  to  his 
mother,  'he  was  hurled  back  on  the  ground  with 
great  violence';  again,  according  to  a  reported 
statement  of  his  father,  '  he  felt  something  strike 
him  on  the  breast,  which  was  repeated  a  third  time, 
always  with  increased  force,  the  last  such  as  to  lay 
him  on  his  back.' 

The  evidence  in  Joseph's  case  is  now  in.  It  re 
mains,  if  possible,  to  locate  it  among  the  various 
forms  of  epilepsy: — i.  grand  mal ;  2.  petit  mat  ; 
}.  transitional;  4.  irregular;  5.  epileptoid  and  epi- 
leptiform  (Northnagel).  The  classic  form  of  the 
epileptic  attack  is  not  immutable,  yet  it  would  be 
pressing  the  argument  from  silence,  to  identify  the 
omissions  in  the  text,  with  the  occasional  omissions 
in  the  grand  attack.  There  is  the  lack,  not  only  of 
those  symptoms  already  mentioned,  but  also  of  the 
cry,  which  is  more  often  absent  than  present;  and 
in  particular  of  consciousness,  which  is  rarely  com 
pletely  retained.  Joseph's  case  is  not  in  the  first 
category,  grand  mal,  for  '  the  major  convulsive  at 
tack,  with  loss  of  consciousness,  presents  this  con 
stant  characteristic, — that  it  leaves  no  trace  in  the 
memory  of  the  patient.'  This  amnesia  varies  in 
duration.  '  Many  patients  remember  the  remote 
premonitory  phenomena  and  even  the  sensations  of 


362     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

the  aura.  Some  retain  the  memory  of  the  first  con 
vulsive  movements'  (Fere).  At  the  same  time,  it 
should  be  allowed  that  the  epileptic  attack  does  not 
always  occur  in  the  same  manner;  in  the  same  pa 
tient  it  may  vary  infinitely  in  aspect,  intensity  and 
duration;  moreover  incomplete  attacks  may  alter 
nate  with  grand  attacks.  For  all  that,  there  is  no 
single  experience  of  Joseph's  which  completely  ful 
fils  the  classic  formula: — premonitory  symptoms 
remote  and  immediate,  with  both  mental  and  motor 
disturbances;  the  attack  proper,  with  its  two  pe 
riods  of  tonic  and  clonic  convulsions;  the  after- 
stage  of  gradual  return  to  consciousness,  with  ab 
normally  deep  sleep;  and  the  sequelae — of  wounds, 
bruises,  excoriations. 

If  Joseph's  case  is  not  grand  mat,  it  is  also  not 
petit  mat.  He  had  in  the  first  half  of  the  series 
premonitions,  and  in  the  last  half  spasms.  Again, 
to  anticipate,  the  depth  of  his  exhaustion  and  of  his 
unnerved  and  bruised  state  militate  against  the  pen 
ultimate  class,— the  so-called  irregular  forms,  in 
which  the  epileptic  delirium  is  mild;  and  in  greater 
degree  against  the  last  class, — the  epileptoid  and 
epileptiform  seizures.  These  are  slight  and  incom 
plete  and  do  not  comprise  violent  acts  of  ambulatory 
automatism  in  which  the  patient  senselessly  wounds 
himself.  Possibly  Joseph's  last  recorded  seizure, 
with  the  long  flight  from  home,  may  be  one  of 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       363 

those  irregular  forms,  in  which  convulsions  are  re 
placed  by  running. 

On  the  whole,  out  of  the  five  given  varieties,  the 
third,  from  its  inclusive  character,  best  describes 
Joseph's  case.  Of  course  different  forms  of  attack 
occur  jointly,  and,  like  the  undefined  visions  of  1825 
and  1826,  mental  disturbances  may  arise  in  place  of 
the  whole  attack.  But  if  any  exactness  of  defini 
tion  is  required,  Northnagel's  transitional  form  of 
epilepsy  fairly  includes  the  variant  forms  of 
Joseph's  seizures.  In  general,  in  the  transition- 
forms,  there  is  loss  of  consciousness  with  local 
spasms.  Unlike  the  rarer  petit  mat  this  may  occur 
without  any  visible  outward  spasms.  The  above 
mentioned  variety  in  Joseph's  terms  of  explanation — 
he  was  'struck,  chastised,  assaulted' — is  in  accord 
with  the  transitional  type  of  spasmodic  phenomena, 
for  the  locality,  intensity  and  nature  of  these  are 
subject  to  the  greatest  variation.  As  to  further 
permutations,  it  happens  but  seldom  that  tonic  and 
clonic  spasms  appear  together,  or  in  succession,  as 
in  the  major  attacks;  as  a  rule  there  is  in  this  form 
only  one  or  the  other  kind.  Thus  it  may  happen 
that  certain  fingers  are  rigidly  bent  or  stretched — as 
Joseph's  dislocation  of  thumb  in  the  last  seizure, — 
or  a  slight  tremor  runs  over  the  whole  body — as 
Joseph's  'a  shock  that  affected  the  whole  body.' 
This  latter  detail,  for  fear  of  mutiplying  the  number 


364    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

of  real  seizures,  has  been  already  considered  a  mere 
premonitory  symptom.  Further  discussion  of  the 
transitional  attack  proper  is  unnecessary,  for,  as  has 
been  said,  '  it  is  quite  unprofitable  to  undertake  to 
enumerate  here  all  the  possible  multifarious  varieties 
of  the  picture;  the  reality  surpasses  any  descrip 
tion.' 

As  to  the  immediate  consequences  of  the  epilep 
tic  attack,  besides  the  nervous  collapse  already 
indicated,  there  is  to  be  incidentally  noted  the  slight 
aphasia  after  the  longest  ambulatory  seizure — 
'Joseph  made  no  answer.'  The  more  marked 
psychic  after  effects  have  been  described  in  the 
text. 

In  connection  with  the  psychiatric  criteria,  such 
as  the  hallucination  of  persecution,  Joseph's  inter- 
paroxysmal  condition  should  be  studied.  The  only 
pertinent  statement  is,  that,  previous  to  the  seizure 
of  January,  1827,  which  took  place  within  a  week 
or  so  of  his  marriage,  Joseph  was  '  in  good  health 
and  fine  spirits.'  Now  this  is  not  opposed  to  the 
general  constitutional  relations,  '  as  the  constitution 
may  be  perfectly  normal,  so  in  the  case  of  certain 
epileptics  may  all  pathological  appearances  on  the 
part  of  the  nervous  system  be  absent;  /.  e.t  many 
epileptics  appear  to  be  ailing  only  at  the  time  of  the 
paroxysms,  exhibiting  in  the  intervals  the  ap 
pearance  of  thoroughly  and  completely  healthy  per- 


EPILEPSY  AND  THE  VISIONS       36$ 

sons'  (Northnagel).  As  to  the  remoter  conse 
quences  again  but  one  definite  fact  is  obtainable. 
About  six  months  after  the  last  recorded  seizure, 
Joseph  was  '  nearly  worn  out,  of  gloomy  appearance, 
constitution  evidently  not  strong,  and  he  would  fall 
asleep  as  he  was  walking  along.'22  Joseph's 
mother  attributes  this  exhaustion  to  his  grief  over 
the  loss  of  his  first  child,  and  anxiety  as  to  the 
stolen  portion  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.™  Did  this 
bring  on  other  attacks  ?  Within  two  months  the 
1  angel  visited  Joseph ' ;  this  was  soon  after  followed 
by  a  f  revelation.'  Again  on  September  22,  1828,  just 
a  year  after  the  last  fully  recorded  vision,  he  received 
a  message  that  '  the  servants  of  Satan  have  sought 
to  destroy  you.'  Whether  these  visitations  are  to 
be  identified  with  epileptic  seizures  is  immaterial;24 
the  point  here  is  that,  as  regards  mental  manifesta 
tions,  '  it  is  undoubtedly  possible  for  an  absolutely 
healthy  state  of  mind  to  coexist  with  epilepsy.' 
Historical  tradition  tells  of  numerous  highly  gifted 

32 '  Biographical  Sketches/  pp.  119-20. 

23 «  Biographical  Sketches,'  p.  1 18.  In  July,  1828,  Joseph  had  a 
1  revelation  concerning  certain  manuscripts  taken  from  the  posses 
sions  of  Martin  Harris  '  ("  Book  of  Commandments,"  chapter  3)  but 
this  '  revelation '  was  « soon  after  the  angel  visited  him.'  «  Bio 
graphical  Sketches,'  p.  125. 

24  •  Book  of  Commandments,'  Chapter  4,  following.  Further 
revelations  followed  on  February,  March  and  April,  1829,  but  the 
series  beginning  then  concerns  business  affairs  and  are  not 
theophanic  visions. 


366    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

men  who  suffer  from  epilepsy,  and  whose  deeds  do 
not  allow  the  recognition  of  any  mental  deteriora 
tion. 

Finally,  as  to  Joseph's  relief  from  these  seizures: 
there  seems  to  have  been  a  spontaneous  cure  in 
his  twenty-third  year.  This  recovery  was  facili 
tated  positively  by  the  infrequency  of  his  attacks, 
negatively  by  the  fact  that  the  seizures  were 
of  the  non-vertiginous  variety.  Whether  these 
youthful  experiences  seriously  affected  his  mind  is 
to  be  determined  only  from  a  view  of  his  whole 
public  life,  from  the  time  he  was  tarred  and 
feathered  by  a  mob  to  his  last  days  of  colossal 
egotism.  The  prophet's  mental  soundness  is  a 
question  for  the  alienist  to  decide.  Nevertheless 
parsimony  demands  a  cautious  judgment,  for  in 
decided  reaction  against  the  opinion  formerly  main 
tained,  it  has  been  proved  by  statistics,  that  aliena 
tion  occurs  only  if  the  epileptic  seizures  follow  in 
unusually  rapid  succession. 


APPENDIX  III 

THE   SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY   OF  THE 
'BOOK  OF  MORMON' 


APPENDIX  III 

THE     SPAULDING-RIGDON     THEORY    OF    THE     '  BOOK    OF 
MORMON ' ' 

THE  ordinary  anti-Mormon  theory  of  the  origin  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon  was  first  formally  presented  by 
Howe  in  1834.  It  was,  in  brief,  that  a  romance  of 
prehistoric  America,  written  in  Ohio  in  1812  by  a 
Congregational  minister,  was  the  '  source,  root  and 
inspiration '  by  which  Smith  and  his  associate, 
Sidney  Rigdon,  wrote  the  Book  of  Mormon.  The 
title  of  Howe's  book  is  explanatory:  '  Mormonism 
Unveiled,'  or,  a  faithful  account  of  that  singular 
imposition  and  delusion,  from  its  rise  to  the  present 
time.  With  sketches  of  the  characters  of  the 
propagators,  and  a  full  detail  of  the  manner  in 

1  References  : — H.  H.  Bancroft,  '  History  of  Utah,'  1890 ;  «  Hand 
book  of  Reference,'  1884;  E.  D.  Howe,  'Mormonism  Unveiled,' 
1834;  J.  H.  Kennedy,  'Early  Days  of  Mormonism,'  1888;  'The 
Manuscript  Found '  .  .  .  From  a  Verbatim  Copy  of  the 
Original  .  .  .  including  correspondence,'  1885;  R.  Patterson, 
«  Who  Wrote  the  Book  of  Mormon  ?  '  1882  ;  A.  T.  Schroeder,  « The 
Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,'  1901  ;  '  Times  and  Seasons,' 
4,  179  ff. ;  B.  Winchester,  «  The  Origin  of  the  Spaulding  Story,' 
1840. 

369 


370    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

which  the  famous  Golden  Bible  was  brought  before 
the  world.  To  which  are  added,  inquiries  into  the 
probability  that  the  historical  part  of  the  said  Bible 
was  written  by  one  Solomon  Spaulding,  more  than 
twenty  years  ago,  and  by  him  intended  to  have  been 
published  as  a  romance.' 

According  to  the  account  of  his  widow,2  Solomon 
Spaulding  was  born  in  Connecticut  in  1761,  and  was 
graduated  from  Dartmouth  College  in  1785.  Becom 
ing  a  Congregational  minister,  in  1809  he  removed 
to  New  Salem,  now  Conneaut,  Ohio.  Being  of  a 
lively  imagination  and  with  a  great  fondness  for 
history,  he  became  interested  in  the  numerous 
mounds  and  forts  of  Ohio,  supposed  to  be  the 
works  of  an  extinct  race.  To  beguile  his  invalidism 
he  took  three  years  in  writing  a  historical  sketch  of 
this  long  lost  race.  Their  extreme  antiquity  led 
him  to  write  in  the  most  ancient  style,  his  sole  ob 
ject  being  to  amuse  himself  and  his  neighbors.  The 
book  claimed  to  have  been  written  by  one  of  the 
lost  nation,  and  to  have  been  recovered  from  the 
earth.  It  assumed  the  title  of  the  'Manuscript 
Found.'  Its  date  was  1812,  about  the  time  of  Hull's 
surrender  of  Detroit.  In  that  year  Mr.  Spaulding 
removed  to  Pittsburg  and  offered  the  manuscript  to 
the  printer  Patterson,  in  whose  office  it  was  copied 
by  an  employee,  Sidney  Rigdon.  At  length  the 

•Boston  Recorder >  May,  1839. 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    371 

manuscript  was  returned  to  its  author.  ...  In 
1834,  at  New  Salem,  Ohio,  a  Mormon  preacher  read 
copious  extracts  from  the  Book  of  Mormon.  The 
historical  part  was  recognized  by  the  older  inhabi 
tants  as  the  identical  work  of  Mr.  Spaulding.  .  .  . 
'  Thus  an  historical  romance,  with  the  addition  of  a 
few  pious  expressions  and  extracts  from  the  sacred 
scripture,  has  been  construed  into  a  new  Bible.' 

Of  the  ultimate  fate  of  this  manuscript,  nothing  is 
said  by  Spaulding's  widow,  but  Howe  claimed  to 
have  found,  among  Spaulding's  literary  remains, — '  a 
single  manuscript  book,  containing  about  one  quire 
of  paper.  It  was  a  romance  purporting  to  have 
been  translated  from  the  Latin,  found  in  twenty- 
four  rolls  of  parchment  in  a  cave,  on  the  banks  of 
Conneaut  Creek,  but  written  in  modern  style,  and 
giving  a  fabulous  account  of  a  ship  being  driven 
upon  the  American  coast,  while  proceeding  from 
Rome  to  Britain,  a  short  time  previous  to  the 
Christian  era;  this  country  being  then  inhabited  by 
Indians.  This  old  manuscript  has  been  shown  to 
several  of  the  foregoing  witnesses,  who  recognize 
it  as  Spaulding's,  he  having  told  them  that  he  had 
altered  his  first  plan  of  writing  by  going  further 
back  with  dates,  and  writing  in  the  old  scripture 
style  in  order  that  it  might  appear  more  ancient. 
They  say  that  it  bears  no  resemblance  to  the 
'  Manuscript  Found.' 


372    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

It  should  here  be  noted  that,  as  early  as  1834, 
there  appear  to  enter  into  the  problem  two  dis 
tinct  Spaulding  manuscripts, — one  primary,  which 
may  be  called  the  '  Latin  version '  (L),  the  other 
subsequent  and  secondary,  the  '  Hebraic  version ' 
(H).  These,  and  possibly  other  manuscripts,  are 
also  referred  to  in  the  testimonies  of  the  '  older 
inhabitants/  which  Howe  cites,  and  which  will  be 
scrutinized  later.  Howe's  book,  with  its  double 
form  of  the  Spaulding  theory,  was  of  course  criti 
cised  in  the  Mormon  Church  organ.3  It  was  an 
swered  at  length,  in  1840,  by  B.  Winchester's,  '  The 
origin  of  the  Spaulding  story  concerning  the 
1  Manuscript  Found ';  with  a  short  biography  of 
Dr.  P.  Hulbert,  the  originator  of  the  same;  and 
some  testimony  adduced,  showing  it  to  be  a  sheer 
fabrication  so  far  as  its  connection  with  the  '  Book 
of  Mormon '  is  concerned.1 

The  hypothesis  of  the  agency  of  Hulbert  (or 
Hurlburt)  rests  chiefly  on  the  testimony  of  one 
Jackson,  who,  having  read  both  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon  and  Spaulding's  manuscript,  said  that  there 
was  no  agreement  between  them,  for  '  Mr.  Spauld 
ing's  manuscript  was  a  very  small  work,  in  the 
form  of  a  novel,  saying  not  one  word  about  the 
children  of  Israel,  but  professed  to  give  an  account 
of  a  race  of  people  who  originated  from  the 

31  Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  906. 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    373 

Romans,  which  Mr.  Spaulding  said  he  had  trans 
lated  from  a  Latin  parchment  that  he  had 
found.'  * 

For  almost  fifty  years  the  treatises  of  Howe  and 
Winchester  contained  the  most  valuable  first-hand 
information.  Other  works,  on  both  sides,  simply 
rehashed  the  old  arguments.  A  possible  exception 
is  the  pamphlet,  in  1882,  of  Robert  Patterson,  son 
of  the  Pittsburg  printer.  In  attempting  to  prove 
that  Rigdon  was  the  connecting  link  between 
Spaulding  and  Smith,  he  acknowledged  that  he 
could  find  only  five  witnesses  who  could  testify  to 
Rigdon's  residence  in  Pittsburg  before  1816,  and 
that  none  of  these  could  speak  from  personal 
knowledge  of  Rigdon's  possible  employment  in 
Patterson's  printing  office.  Patterson  yet  asserts 
'that  Rigdon  as  early  as  1823  had  possession  of 
Spaulding's  manuscript.  How  he  obtained  it  is  un 
important;  that  during  his  career  as  a  minister  of 
the  Disciples'  Church  in  Ohio,  he  devoted  an  ab 
sorbed  attention  to  it;  that  he  was  aware  of  the 
forthcoming  Book  of  Mormon  and  its  contents  long 
before  its  appearance;  that  the  said  contents  were 
largely  Spaulding's  romance,  and  partly  such  modi 
fications  as  Rigdon  had  introduced,  and  that  during 
the  preparation  of  the  Booh  of  Mormon,  Rigdon 
had  repeated  and  long  interviews  with  Smith,  thus 

*  Compare  Scribncr's  Magazine,  October,  1881,  p.  946. 


374    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

easily  supplying  him  with  fresh  instalments  of  the 
pretended  revelation.' 

In  1885  came  an  apparent  settlement  of  the  ques 
tion,  by  the  discovery  of  the  alleged  original  of 
Spaulding's  '  Manuscript  Found '  in  Honolulu.  De 
spite  its  acceptance  by  Latter-day  Saints  and  their 
critics  alike  it  appears  a  dubious  production  for 
a  graduate  of  Dartmouth.  It  does  not  seem  to 
have  occurred  to  either  side  that  this  may  be  like 
McPherson's  Ossianic  poems — after-thoughts  made 
to  order;  that  the  'Conneaut'  story  which  purports 
to  have  been  translated  from  parchment  in  '  Roman 
Letters  in  the  Latin  Language'  may  be  only 
another  example  of  the  literature  of  disguise;  that 
with  Howe's  classic  description  of  this  Latin  version 
(L)  before  them,  the  Mormon  missionaries  in  the 
Sandwich  Islands— such  as  W.  F.  ClufT  and  G.  Q. 
Cannon — may  have  forged  this  document  to  fit  the 
case,  and  to  divert  attention  from  the  complexity  of 
the  problem.  However  that  may  be,  the  character 
istics  of  both  form  and  matter  may  be  learned  from 
a  few  excerpts  and  also  from  the  correspondence 
relative  to  its  discovery: — 6 

'  Near  the  west  bank  of  the  Coneaught  River  there  are 
the  remains  of  an  ancient  fort.  As  I  was  walking  and 

8  Words  and  sentences  underlined  were  stricken  out  in  the  manu 
script.  Places  marked  thus  .  .  .  the  copy  was  illegible. 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    375 

forming  various  conjectures  respecting  the  character  sit 
uation  &  numbers  of  those  people  who  far  exceeded 
the  preesent  Indians  in  works  of  art  and  inginuety,  I 
hapned  to  tread  on  a  flat  stone.  This  was  at  a  small 
distance  from  the  fort,  &  it  lay  on  the  top  of  a  great 
small  mound  of  Earth  exactly  horizontal.  The  face  of 
it  had  a  singular  appearance.  I  discovered  a  number  of 
characters,  which  appeared  to  me  to  be  letters,  but  so 
much  effaced  by  the  ravages  of  time,  that  I  could  not 
read  the  inscription. 

CHAPT.  I. 

AN    EPITOME   OF   THE   AUTHOR'S   LIFE   &  OF  HIS  ARIVAL  IN 

AMERICA. 

As  it  is  possible  that  in  some  future  age  this  part  of 
the  Earth  will  be  inhabited  by  Europians  &  a  history  of 
its  present  inhabitants  would  be  a  valuable  acquisition  I 
proceed  to  write  one  &  deposit  it  in  a  box  secured 
.  so  that  the  ravages  of  time  will  have  no  ef 
fect  upon  it  that  you  may  know  the  author  I  will  give  a 
succint  account  of  his  life  and  of  the  cause  of  his  arrival 
which  I  have  extracted  from  a  manuscript  which  will  be 
deposited  with  this  history. 

My  name  was  is  Fabius  The  family  name  I  sustain  is 
Fabius,  being  decended  from  the  illustrious  general  of 
that  name.  I  was  born  at  Rome 

***** 

Not  far  behind  appeared  Ramack,  the  King  of  Gen- 
eseo.  With  Furious  &  resolute,  he  had  made  the  utmost 
expidition  to  collect  his  forces.  Nor  did  he  delay  a 
moment  when  his  men  were  collected  &  prepared  to 


3/6    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

move.  At  the  head  of  ten  Thousand  bold  &  robust 
wariors,  he  appeared  at  the  place  of  general  rendezvoz, 
within  one  day  after  the  King  of  Cataraugus  had  arrived. 
He  bosted  of  the  rapidity  of  his  movements  &  tho  he 
commanded  the  smallest  division  of  the  grand  army,  yet 
he  anticipated  distinguished  laurels  of  glory,  not  less 
than  what  would  be  obtained  by  their  first  commanders. 

When  these  kings  with  their  forces  had  all  arived  at 
Tolanga,  the  Emperor  Rambock  ordered  them  to  parade 
on  a  great  plain.  They  obeyed  &  and  were  formed  in 
solid  coilums.  The  Emperor  then  attended  by  his  son 
Moonrod,  his  Counsellors  &  the  high  Priest  presented 
himself  before  them.  His  garments  glittered  with  orna 
ments,  &  a  bunch  of  long  feathers  of  various  colours 
were  placed  on  the  front  of  his  cap.  His  sword  he 
held  in  his  right  hand  &  being  tall  &  straight  in  his  per 
son,  &  having  a  countenance  grave  &  bold,  when  he 
walked  his  appearance  was  majestic.  He  was  the  com 
mander  in  chief  &  such  was  the  high  esteem  &  rever 
ence,  with  which  the  whole  army  viewed  him,  that  none 
were  considered  so  worthy  of  that  station.  Taking  a 
stand  in  front  of  the  army  he  brandished  his  sword.  All 
fixed  their  eyes  upon  him  &  gave  profound  attention. 
He  thus  made  an  address. 

Brave  warriors.  It  is  with  the  greatest  satisfaction  & 
joy,  that  I  now  behold  you  assembled  to  revenge  one  of 
the  most  flagitious  Crimes  of  which  man  was  ever  guilty. ' 

Ex-President  J.  H.  Fairchild,  of  Oberlin  College, 
in  the  library  of  which  this  document  now  rests, 
has  compared  the  manuscript  with  the  Book  of 
Mormon  and  sees  no  reason  to  doubt  this  is  the  long 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    377 

lost  story  and  yet  can  detect  no  resemblance  be 
tween  the  two  in  general  and  in  detail  except  that 
each  professes  to  set  forth  the  history  of  lost  tribes.8 
A  letter  of  the  finder,  dated  Honolulu,  March  28th, 
1885,  to  Mr.  Joseph  Smith,  president  of  the  Reor 
ganized  Church  of  L.  D.  S.,  gives  further  details:  — 

'  The  Spaulding  Manuscript  in  my  possession  came  into 
my  hands  in  this  wise.  In  1839-40  my  partner  and  my 
self  bought  of  E.  D.  Howe  the  Painesville  Telegraph, 
published  at  Painesville,  Ohio.  The  transfer  of  the 
printing  department,  types,  press,  &c.,  was  accompanied 
with  a  large  collection  of  books,  manuscripts,  &c.,  this 
manuscript  of  Spaulding  among  the  rest.  So,  you  see, 
it  has  been  in  my  possession  over  forty  years.  But  I 
never  examined  it,  or  knew  the  character  of  it,  until 
some  six  or  eight  months  since.  The  wrapper  was 
marked,  ' Manuscript  Story — Conneaut  Creek.'  The 
wonder  is,  that  in  some  of  my  movements,  I  did  not  des 
troy  or  burn  it  with  a  large  amount  of  rubbish  that  had 
accumulated  from  time  to  time. 

It  happened  that  Pres't  Fairchild  was  here  on  a  visit, 
at  the  time  I  discovered  the  contents  of  it,  and  it  was  ex 
amined  by  him  and  others  with  much  curiosity.  Since 
Pres't  Fairchild  published  the  fact  of  its  existence  in  my 
possession,  I  have  had  applications  for  it  from  half  a 
dozen  sources,  each  applicant  seeming  to  think  that  he  or 
she  was  entitled  to  it.  Mr.  Howe  says  when  he  was  get 
ting  up  a  book  to  expose  Mormonism  as  a  fraud  at  an 
early  day,  when  the  Mormons  had  their  headquarters  at 
Kirtland,  he  obtained  it  from  some  source,  and  it  was  in- 

6 '  Bibliotheca  Sacra,'  January,  1885,  p.  173  ff. 


378     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

advertently  transferred  with  the  other  effects  of  the  print 
ing  office.  A.  B.  Deming,  of  Painesville,  who  is  also 
getting  up  some  kind  of  a  book  I  believe  on  Mormon- 
ism,  wants  me  to  send  it  to  him. 

This  Manuscript  does  not  purport  to  be  '  a  story  of 
the  Indians  formerly  occupying  this  continent; '  but  is  a 
history  of  the  wars  between  the  Indians  of  Ohio  and 
Kentucky,  and  their  progress  in  civilization,  &c.  It  is 
certain  that  this  Manuscript  is  not  the  origin  of  the  Mor 
mon  Bible,  whatever  some  other  manuscript  may  have 
been.  The  only  similarity  between  them,  is,  in  the  man 
ner  in  which  each  purports  to  have  been  found — one  in  a 
cave  on  Conneaut  Creek — the  other  in  a  hill  in  Ontario 
County,  New  York.  There  is  no  identity  of  names,  of 
persons,  or  places ;  and  there  is  no  similarity  of  style  be 
tween  them.  As  I  told  Mr.  Deming,  I  should  as  soon 
think  the  Book  of  Revelations  was  written  by  the  author 
of  Don  Quixotte,  as  that  the  writer  of  this  Manuscript 
was  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Deming  says 
Spaulding  made  three  copies  of  'Manuscript  Found,' 
one  of  which  Sidney  Rigdon  stole  from  a  printing  office 
in  Pittsburg.  You  can  probably  tell  better  than  I  can, 
what  ground  there  is  for  such  an  allegation.  In  a  post 
script  Mr.  Rice  says  he  found  the  following  endorsement 
on  the  Manuscript : 

'  The  writings  of  Solomon  Spaulding  proved  by  Aron 
Wright,  Oliver  Smith,  John  N.  Miller  and  others.  The 
testimonies  of  the  above  gentlemen  are  now  in  my  pos 
session. 

(Signed)  D.  P.  HURLBUT." 

Rice's  subsequent  conclusion  that  his  find  was 
'the  only  writing  of  Spaulding,'  is  contradicted  by 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    379 

the  testimony  of  the  'living  witnesses'  of  1833, 
quoted  by  Howe.  The  affidavits  of  the  three  en 
dorsers  of  the  Honolulu  document  are  as  follows: 
Aaron  Wright  said  Spaulding  possessed  beside 
'many  other  manuscripts,  a  history  of  the  lost 
tribes  of  Israel  .  .  .  their  journey  from  Jerusa 
lem  to  America,  as  it  is  given  in  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon,  excepting  the  religious  matter.'  Oliver  Smith 
said  Spaulding  'was  writing  an  historical  novel 
founded  upon  the  first  settlers  of  this  country, 
.  .  .  their  journey  from  Jerusalem  till  their  ar 
rival  in  America.  No  religious  matter  was  intro 
duced.'  John  N.  Miller  said,  'In  1811  Spaulding 
had  two  or  three  books  or  pamphlets  on  differ 
ent  subjects  .  .  .  one  called  the  "Manuscript 
Found," — a  history  of  the  settlement  of  America 
.  .  .  from  Jerusalem.  I  have  recently  examined 
the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  find  in  it  the  writings  of 
Solomon  Spaulding,  from  beginning  to  end,  but 
mixed  up  with  scripture  and  other  religious  matter, 
which  I  did  not  meet  with  in  the  "Manuscript 
Found."  Many  of  the  passages  in  the  Mormon 
book  are  verbatim  from  Spaulding,  and  others  in 
part.'  These  three  witnesses  identify  the  Book  of 
Mormon  with  the  Hebrew  version  (H).  Of  the 
other  witnesses  only  one  would  seem  to  refer  to 
(L).  He  said  '  I  have  lately  read  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon,  and  believe  it  to  be  the  same  as  Spaulding 


38o    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

wrote,  except  the  religious  part.'  Now  Howe's 
witnesses  later  contradict  themselves.  When  the 
Latin  version  (L)  was  subsequently  shown  to  '  sev 
eral  of  the  foregoing  witnesses'  they  said  that  it 
'bears  no  resemblance  to  the  "Manuscript  Found  " 
in  the  old  scripture  style.'  In  other  words  the 
'original  autographs'  of  Spaulding  were  at  least 
two,  which  of  these,  if  either  furnished  matter  to 
Smith  for  the  Book  of  Mormon,  it  is  now  impossi 
ble  to  discover. 

In  like  manner  it  appears  impossible  to  show 
how,  when  or  through  whom,  Smith  obtained 
a  Spaulding  document  which  became  the  '  source, 
root  and  inspiration'  of  the  Book  of  Mormon. 
The  general  formula  for  the  anti-Mormon  theory 
is  that  through  Patterson,  Rigdon  obtained  a  copy 
of  a  Spaulding  document,  and  transmitted  the 
contents  to  Smith,  before  the  publication  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon.  As  the  question  of  date  is  all  im 
portant,  the  statements  of  the  parties  concerned 
should  first  be  given  and  a  chronological  table  com 
piled  therefrom.  Howe  having  had  recourse  to  the 
firm  of  Patterson  &  Lambdin,  Pittsburg,  '  Mr.  Pat 
terson  said  he  had  no  recollection  of  any  such 
manuscript  being  brought  there  for  publication. 
.  .  .  Now,  as  Spaulding's  book  can  nowhere 
be  found,  or  anything  heard  of  it  being  carried  to 
this  establishment,  there  is  the  strongest  presump- 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    381 

tion  that  it  remained  there  in  seclusion,  till  about 
the  year  1823,  or  1824,  at  which  time  Sidney  Rigdon 
located  himself  in  that  city.  [In]  about  three  years 
he  left  there,  and  came  into  Geauga  County,  Ohio 
.  .  .  and  commenced  preaching  some  new  points 
of  doctrine,  which  were  afterwards  found  to  be  in 
culcated  in  the  Mormon  Bible.  He  resided  in  this 
vicinity  (as  a  minister  of  the  Disciples'  Church) 
about  four  years  previous  to  the  appearance  of  the 
book,  during  which  time  he  made  several  long 
visits  to  Pittsburg,  and  perhaps  to  the  Susque- 
hanna,  where  Smith  was  then  digging  for  money,  or 
pretending  to  be  translating  plates.  .  .  .  About 
the  time  Rigdon  left  Pittsburg,  the  Smith  family 
began  to  tell  about  finding  a  book  that  would  con 
tain  a  history  of  the  first  inhabitants  of  America, 
and  that  two  years  elapsed  before  they  finally  got 
possession  of  it.' 

Robert  Patterson,  the  son  of  the  Pittsburg  printer 
says:— 'The  theory  hitherto  most  widely  published 
.  .  .  has  been  that  Rigdon  was  a  printer  in  Pat 
terson's  printing  office  when  the  Spaulding  manu 
script  was  brought  there  in  1812-14,  and  that  he 
either  copied  or  purloined  it.  Having  it  thus  in  his 
possession,  the  use  made  of  it  was  an  afterthought 
suggested  by  circumstances  many  years  later.  More 
recently  another  theory  has  been  advanced,  that 
Rigdon  obtained  possession  of  the  Spaulding  manu- 


382    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

script  during  his  pastorate  of  the  First  Baptist  Church 
or  soon  thereafter,  1822-4,  ...  the  friends  of 
Rigdon,  in  response  to  the  first  charge,  deny  that  he 
ever  resided  in  Pittsburg  previous  to  1822,  or  that  he 
ever  was  a  printer,  and  in  general  answer  to  both 
charges  affirm  that  he  never  at  any  time  had  access 
to  Spaulding's  manuscript.' 

In  the  Boston  Journal,  May  27,  1839,  Rigdon 
says:  'There  was  no  man  by  the  name  of  Patterson 
during  my  residence  at  Pittsburg  who  had  a  print 
ing  office;  what  might  have  been  before  I  lived 
there,  I  know  not.  Mr.  Robert  Patterson,  I  was 
told,  had  owned  a  printing  office  before  I  lived  in 
that  city.  .  .  .  This  Mr.  Patterson,  who  was  a 
Presbyterian  preacher,  I  had  a  very  slight  acquaint 
ance  with  during  my  residence  in  Pittsburg.  He 
was  then  acting  under  an  agency  in  the  book  and 
stationery  business,  and  was  the  owner  of  no  prop 
erty  of  any  kind,  printing  office  or  anything  else, 
during  the  time  I  resided  in  the  city.' 

The  date  of  Rigdon's  Pittsburg  residence,  is  not 
given  specifically  here  or  elsewhere  in  his  writings,7 

1  Compare  holograph  letter,  Berrian  collection.  There  is  also 
no  Pittsburg  Directory  for  1823-24,  but  compare  the  seventy-fifth 
anniversary  of  the  First  Baptist  church,  now  the  Fourth  Baptist 
church,  Pittsburg,  1812-87: — 

•  Sydney  Rigdon  was  born  in  Allegheny  County,  Pa.,  and  was 
reared  on  a  farm  about  twelve  miles  from  the  city  of  Pittsburg. 
He  learned  the  printer's  trade.  When  quite  a  young  man  he  was 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    383 

According  to  one  who  knew  him  late  in  life,  as  an 
ex-Mormon,  Rigdon  was  extremely  reticent  as  to 
his  early  movements.8  Joseph  Smith  in  his  Auto 
biography,  inserted  a  life  of  Rigdon  and  prefaced  it 
with  the  following  remarks : 9 

'  As  there  has  been  a  great  rumor,  and  many  false 
statements  have  been  given  to  the  world  respecting 
Elder  Rigdon's  connection  with  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ,  it  is  necessary  that  a  correct  account  of  the 
same  be  given,  so  that  the  public  mind  may  be  dis 
abused  on  the  subject.  I  shall  therefore  proceed  to 
give  a  brief  history  of  his  life  down,  from  authentic 

baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Peter's  Creek  Baptist  church  by 
Elder  David  Phillips.  He  afterwards  moved  to  Warren,  Ohio, 
"  from  which,"  says  Rev.  S.  Williams,  in  his  pamphlet,  "  Mormon- 
ism  Exposed,"  "  he  came  to  this  city,  and  connected  himself  with 
the  first  regular  Baptist  church,  then  in  its  infancy,  on  the  a8th 
day  of  January,  1822.  He  took  the  pastoral  charge  of  the  church, 
but  before  the  close  of  one  short  year  he  began  to  advance  senti 
ments  not  in  accordance  with  divine  truth."  He  held  to  "  baptismal 
regeneration."  .  .  .  For  this,  "  and  many  other  abominable 
errors,  he  was  condemned  by  a  council  of  ministers  and  messengers 
from  neighboring  churches,  which  convened  in  Pittsburg  on  the 
Iith  of  October,  1823."  .  .  .  "By  this  decision  he  was 
excluded  from  the  Baptist  denomination."  He  died  at  Friendship, 
a  village  in  Allegheny  County,  N.  Y.,  July  I4th,  1876.' 

8 «  Times  and  Seasons,'  4,  172  ff.  April,  1843,  to' end  of  Vol.  iv. 

•Compare  manuscript  editorial  by  Dill,  Aug.  5,  1876.  The 
writer  merely  adds  confusion  to  the  chronology.  He  says  that  the 
Spaulding  manuscript  was  within  the  reach  of  Rigdon  between 
1811  and  1819,  and  of  Smith  between  1819-1826.  He  adds  that 
Rigdon  preached  at  Mentor,  Lake  County,  Ohio,  1827-1829;  and 
at  Palmyra,  New  York,  1830. 


384    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

sources,  as  also  an  account  of  his  connection  with 
the  Church  of  Christ.' 

Joseph  Smith,  in  1843,  also  said  of  Rigdon  that  he 
was  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  church  in  Pittsburg 
from  Feb.,  1822,  to  August,  1824.  In  1826  he  went 
to  Bainbridge,  Ohio,  preaching  there  and  at  Mantua 
his  own  and  Alexander  Campbell's  doctrines  of  re 
pentance  and  baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins  and 
the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  1827  he  went  to 
Mentor,  thirty  miles  from  Bainbridge,  and  near 
Lake  Erie.  The  doctrines  he  there  advanced  were 
new,  especially  the  Biblical  prophecies  concerning 
the  Literal  Restoration  of  Israel.  The  eight  months 
he  was  there  he  baptized  many.  In  the  Fall  of 
1830,  Parley  Pratt,  Oliver  Cowdery  and  Peter  Whit- 
mer  baptized  and  ordained  Rigdon  as  a  Mormon 
Elder.  Previous  to  this  Pratt  had  been  a  preacher 
in  the  same  church  with  Rigdon  in  Amherst,  Lorain 
County,  Ohio,  and  had  been  sent  to  New  York  State 
where  he  met  Joseph  Smith,  junior.  Rigdon's  pre 
vailing  characteristic  was  his  entire  freedom  from 
any  sectarian  bias.  After  a  fortnight's  reading  of 
the  Booh  of  Mormon  he  was  converted.  In  De 
cember,  1830,  came  the  first  revelation  to  Joseph  and 
Sidney  at  Fayette,  New  York,  saying  that  Sidney 
had  prepared  the  way,  and  in  the  same  month,  the 
second,  saying  that  '  it  is  not  expedient  that  ye 
should  translate  any  more,  until  ye  shall  go  to  the 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    385 

Ohio.'     In  January,  1831,  Joseph  went  with  Sidney 
to  the  branch  of  the  church  in  Kirtland,  Ohio. 


TABLE  I. 

CHRONOLOGY     OF    RIGDON's    MOVEMENTS    IN    RELATION    TO    THE 
BOOK    OF    MORMON. 


Came  to  Pittsburg 

Came  to  Pittsburg 

Baptist  pastor  in  Pittsburg.  . 

Preaches  '  Campbellism '  in 
Bainbridge,  Ohio  .... 

Makes  long  visits  to  Pitts 
burg  and  perhaps  the  Sus- 
quehanna  

Preaches  Restoration  of  the 
Jews,  &c.,at  Mentor,  Ohio, 
until 

Visits  Warren,  Ohio.11  . 

Debates  with  A.  Campbell  at 
Austintown,  Ohio  .... 

Baptized  by  Mormons  Parley 
Pratt,  &c.,  Kirtland,  Ohio. . 

Visits  Smith  at  Fayette,  New 
York 

Returns  with  Smith  to  Kirt 
land,  Ohio 


Anti-  Mormon. 
1812-14   (P)10 
or  1823-24  (H) 
18^2-24  (P) 


1826-30  (H) 


March,  1828 


Mormon. 


1822-24 


1826-27  (H)          1826 


[About] 
September,  1827 


October,  1830 
December,  1830 
January,  1831 


TABLE  II. 

CHRONOLOGY  OF  SMITH'S   MOVEMENTS   IN   RELATION  TO  THE  BOOK 
OF   MORMON.12 

Learns  of  '  certain  plates '  in  Manchester,  New 

York September,  1823 

Obtains  the  plates  at  Manchester,  New  York  .  .     September,  1827 


10  P— Patterson ;  H-— Howe. 

11  Kennedy,  p.  66. 

12  Compare  « Times  and  Seasons,'    '  Handbook   of    Reference,' 
« Book   of    Commandments,'   « Biographical    Sketches,'   « Pearl  of 
Great  Price.' 


386    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Translates   at    Harmony,    Pennsylvania,    December,    1827,  June, 
1829,  April  12-June   14,  1828. 

Translation  recommenced  at  Harmony,  Penn 
sylvania  April  7,  1829 

Three    Revelations   about  '  a   marvelous   work     February,  April 
about  to  come  forth, and  May 

Translation  continued  at  Fayette,  New  York  .  .       June,  1829 

Book  of  Mormon  copyrighted  in  Northern  Dis 
trict  of  New  York  June  II,  1829 

Book  of  Mormon  printed  at  Palmyra,  New  York     July,  1830 

First  Revelation  to  Joseph  and  Sidney,  in  Fay 
ette,  New  York,  « Thou  wast  sent  forth  to 
prepare  the  way.' December,  1830 

Second  Revelation  « It  is  not  expedient  that  ye 

should  translate  any  more  ' .      December,  1830 


By  comparing  the  above  tables,  it  is  seen  that  the 
Mormon  sources  do  not  account  for  Rigdon's  move 
ments  from  about  September,  1827,  to  October,  1830, 
during  which  time  Howe  supposes  the  visits  were 
made  to  Smith  at  Harmony,  Pennsylvania.  Another 
supposition  is  that  if  Rigdon  had  no  direct  connection 
himself,  it  may  have  been  through  this  Ohio  assoc 
iate  Pratt.  According  to  Smith's  account,  '  Elder 
Parley  Pratt  had  been  a  preacher  in  the  same  church 
with  Elder  Rigdon,  and  resided  in  the  town  of  Am- 
herst,  Lorain  County,  in  that  state,  and  had  been  sent 
into  the  State  of  New  York,  on  a  mission,  where  he 
had  become  acquainted  with  the  circumstances  of 
the  coming  forth  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  was 
introduced  to  Joseph  Smith,  junior,  and  others  of  the 
Church  of  Latter-day  Saints.  After  listening  to  the 
testimonies  of  the  "  witnesses,"  and  reading  the 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    387 

"Book,"  he  became  convinced    .     .     .     and  was 
baptized.' 

Now  the  witnesses  '  viewed  '  the  plates  some  time 
in  June,  1829,  while  the  Book  of  Mormon  was  copy 
righted  the  nth  instant.  From  the  approximation 
of  dates,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  Pratt  could  have 
had  time  to  be  the  go-between.  Thus,  judging  from 
the  time  of  Pratt's  mission,  the  period  of  Rigdon's 
direct  collusion  is  likewise  narrowed.  If  he  had  per 
sonal  intercourse  with  Smith,  it  must  have  been  be 
tween  September,  1827,  and  June,  1829,  but  these 
are  the  dates,  respectively,  of  the  obtaining  of  the 
plates  and  the  copyright  of  the  book.  In  other  words 
the  period  of  manufacture  of  the  Book  of  Mormon^ 
coincides  with  the  period  in  which  Rigdon's  move 
ments  are  unaccounted  for. 

The  gap  in  the  Mormon  sources  is  significant 
and  much  has  been  made  of  it  by  the  opposition. 
For  example,  it  was  'afterwards  discovered  that 
Rigdon's  occasional  business  calls  from  Kirtland 
and  Mentor  tallied  with  the  visits  of  the  mys 
terious  stranger  at  the  Smith  residence.'  To  uphold 
this  double  assumption,  no  dates  are  given  except 
that,  in  March,  1828,  Rigdon  was  at  Warren,  Ohio, 
and  this  was  over  two  hundred  miles  from  Smith's 
itinerary.  In  fine,  Rigdon  is  a  doubtful  connect 
ing  link;  the  presumption  of  collusion  is  only  nega 
tive;  the  argument  from  silence  is  strong,  but  the 


388     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

case  falls,  if  an  alibi  can  be  proved  for  Rigdon,— 
if  he  was  not  at  Harmony,  Pennsylvania,  orFayette, 
New  York,  during  the  six  actual  months  of  trans 
lating,  Smith  is  justly  entitled  to  the  authorship  of 
the  Book  of  Mormon. 

The  external  evidence  leaves  the  battle  drawn;  it 
is  not  so  with  the  internal  evidence.  Judging  from 
the  characteristics  of  the  book,  the  proof  of  authen 
ticity  is  decisive.  In  form  it  has  no  resemblance  to 
the  Honolulu  manuscript;  in  matter  it  needs  neither 
Rigdon's  personality  nor  Spaulding's  romances  to 
account  for  itself.  Take  the  four  marks  of  the 
book,  and  compare  them  with  what  is  known  of 
Rigdon.  In  old  age  his  style  was  redundant,13  while 
in  1821  Alexander  Campbell  called  him  'the  great 
orator  of  the  Mahoning  Association,14  and,  as  a 
minister  of  the  Disciples  in  the  Western  Reserve,  he 
was  described  as  fluent  in  utterance  and  copious  in 
language.16 

If  Rigdon's  style,  at  this  time,  was  better,  so  with 
his  twelve  years  of  seniority  over  Smith,  his  knowl 
edge  was  wider.16  In  particular,  in  the  Western  Re- 

13  Rigdon's  holograph  letter  (Berrian  collection). 

14  Millennial  Harbinger,  1848,  p.  523. 

15  A.  S.  Hayden,  '  Early  History  of  the  Disciples  in  the  Western 
Reserve,'  1876,  p.  191. 

18  Compare  Overland  Monthly,  December,  1890.  Charlotte  Hav 
en's  letter,  March  5th  and  6th,  1843  :  '  Sidney  Rigdon,  the  most 
learned  man  among  the  Latter-day  Saints.  .  .  .  He  has  an 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    389 

serve,  he  was  counted  learned  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Moreover  as  to  archaeology,  he  seems  to 
have  taken  no  interest  in  Americana;  the  only  point 
of  resemblance  is  in  his  unsystematic  theology.  His 
frequent  sectarian  changes  were  unique  even  for  that 
day.  In  1819,  he  was  an  old  school  Baptist;  in 
1821,  he  came  under  the  influence  of  Alexander 
Campbell  the  'new  light';  with  him  he  ultimately 
differed  on  communistic  ideas,  which  he  had  mean 
while  absorbed,  from  a  leader  of  the  Disciple  church 
in  Ohio.  The  so-called  Campbellite  baptism  for  the 
remission  of  sins  does  not  occur  in  the  Book  of 
Mormon,  while  the  insistence  on  faith  "  is  partly 
plagiarized  from  Scripture,  partly  due  to  Smith's 
dabbling  with  the  occult.  Smith's  creed  of  1844 18 

intelligent  countenance,  a  courteous  manner,  and  speaks  grammat 
ically.  He  talks  very  pleasantly  about  his  travels  in  this  country 
and  Europe,  but  is  very  reticent  about  his  religion.  I  have  heard 
it  stated  that  he  was  Smith's  chief  aid  in  getting  up  the  "  Book  of 
Mormon  "  and  creed.  He  is  so  far  above  Smith  in  intellect,  educ 
ation,  and  secretiveness,  that  there  is  scarcely  a  doubt  that  he  is  at 
the  head  in  compiling  it.  I  looked  over  his  library — it  was  a  very 
good  student's  collection, — Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin  lexicons  and 
readers,  stray  volumes  of  Shakespeare,  Scott,  Irving's  works,  and  a 
number  of  other  valuable  books. 

.  .  .  ["  The  Book  of  Mormon  "]  we  find  no  creed  in  it,  no 
article  on  which  to  found  a  religion.  It  might  have  been  written 
by  a  much  less  intelligent  man  than  Sidney  Rigdon.' 

11 'Book  of  Mormon,'  pp.  246,  329,  332,  333,  597-9,  614;  com 
pare  also  the  '  Seven  Lectures  on  Faith,1  in  '  Doctrine  and  Cove 
nants.' 

18  •  Times  and  Seasons,'  3,  709. 


390    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

promulgates  these  among  his  five  ordinances:  faith; 
repentance;  baptism  by  immersion  for  the  remission 
of  sins;  and  the  laying  on  of  hands  for  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  Again,  in  1832,  Alexander  Camp 
bell  sharply  attacked  the  Book  of  Mormon  and  its 
contents.19  The  alleged  Discipleism  inherent  in  Mor- 
monism  is  still  denied  by  the  more  orthodox  apolo 
gists.  20 

19 «  Delusions ;  an  Analysis  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  with  an 
Examination  of  its  Internal  and  External  Evidences,  and  a  Refuta 
tion  of  its  Pretense  to  Divine  Authority,'  Boston,  1832. 

20  J.  F.  McDowell,  '  Discipleism,  or  the  Claims  of  Alexander 
Campbell  to  a  Restored  Primitive  Christianity  Examined,'  1901, 
p.  12: 

4  We  have  therefore  weighed  this  church  in  the  balance  of  God's 
word  and  found  it  wanting,  rendering  the  following  count  of  in 
dictments  against  it : 

1.  They  have  no  apostles. 

2.  They  have  no  prophets. 

3.  No  seventies. 

4.  No  priests. 

5.  No  bishops. 

6.  No  teachers. 

7.  The  signs  or  gifts  of  Mark  16  :   17,  18,  do  not  follow  them. 

8.  They  do  not  lay  on  hands,  after  baptism,  for  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Spirit. 

9.  They  do  not  call  the  elders  for  the  sick,  as  directed  in  James 

5-'  *4»  *5- 

10.  They  do  not  teach  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  as  taught  in 
the  Bible. 

11.  They  do  not  teach  the  Bible  doctrine  of  eternal  judgment. 

12.  They  claim  to  teach  baptism  for  remission  of  sins,  but  con 
tradict  themselves  by  taking  people  into  their  fellowship  from  other 
churches  who  have  not  been  so  baptized,  without  rebaptism. 

13.  They  do  not  lay  on  hands  for  the  blessing  of  little  children. 

14.  They  teach  that  the  church  existed  for  the  first  time  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost. 

15.  They  believe  and  teach  that  the  gospel  was  never  taught,  in 
fact,  until  the  day  of  Pentecost. 

1 6.  They  do  not  teach  the  baptism  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

We  will  now  let  the   reader  decide  how  far  Mr.  Campbell  and 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    391 

But  the  question  of  the  injection  of  these  doc 
trines  into  the  Book  of  Mormon,  through  the 
agency  of  Rigdon,  is  again  a  question  of  date. 
The  Declaration  of  the  two  Campbells  against  '  the 
divided  and  disturbed  condition  of  the  religious 
community,'  came  out  in  1809,"  but  before  Rigdon 
came  over  from  Ohio,  Campbell's  teachings  were 
spread  broadcast  over  the  country,"  andDiscipleism 
had  spread  northeast  into  New  York.23  Already  in 
the  days  of  Joseph's  money  digging  there  existed 
these  Disciples  of  Christ  near  Ithaca,  through  which 
ran  the  State  road  from  Binghampton  to  the  Susque- 
hanna.  Yet  there  are  three  special  doctrines  which 
Rigdon  is  said  to  have  taught  among  the  Disciples 
in  Ohio,  and  then  put  into  the  Book  of  Mormon. 

his  successors  have  been  successful  in  restoring  primitive,  original 
Christianity.  The  Bible  does  teach  the  probability  and  possibility 
of  a  restoration  of  the  gospel  and  kingdom  of  God  in  the  latter 
days,  as  foreshadowed  in  Matthew  24:  14;  Malachi  3:  1-3;  Reve 
lation  14:  6,  7  ;  and  that  after  the  restoration  had  occurred  some 
would  depart  from  the  faith,  as  note  I  Timothy  4:1.  The  words 
"  the  faith,"  evidently  have  reference  to  the  entire  gospel  scheme, 
as  implied  by  Paul  in  Ephesians  4 :  5.' 

21  Rupp,  p.  209.     « The  Disciples  of   Christ,'  « Analysis  of  the 
Great  Salvation,'  « the  sole  principle  is  faith  and  the  prime  means 
baptism  by  immersion.' 

22  Venable,  p.  220.     Between  1823  and  1830,  A.  Campbell  issued 
46,000  '  volumes  '   of  his  works.    Bethany,  Ohio,  near  Wheeling, 
was  made  a  post-office  on  account  of  the  extensive  mail  he  received 
and  dispatched. 

23  It  was  at   Enfield,  that  these  Christ-ians,  a  variety  of  '  New 
Lights,'  flourished.     Also,  Lorenzo  Young  speaks  of  a  Campbellite 
revival  in  Schuyler  County. 


392     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

The  first  of  these,  Communism,  is  not  mentioned 
in  the  text,  while  new  revelations  and  miracles  and 
gifts  of  the  Spirit  are  not  unusual  recrudescences 
due  to  a  literal  interpretation  of  scripture.24 

Without  penetrating  further  into  the  wilderness 
of  minor  sects,25  it  is  the  historic  background  of 
western  New  York,  in  the  third  decade,  more  than 
any  '  mysterious  stranger '  from  the  West,  that  acts 
for  the  Booh  of  Mormon  and  its  doctrinal  contents. 
The  proof  of  authenticity  is  cumulative:  especially 
do  the  minor  movements,  reflected  in  the  narrative, 
show  that  the  book  is  in  accordance  with  its  sup 
posed  historical  position,  as  to  time,  place  and  cir 
cumstances.  Thus  the  Morgan  excitement  by  fixing 
the  lower  limit  of  date  as  1826,  excludes  the  Spauld- 
ing  theory  in  its  crudest  form  of  entire  incorporation. 
Even  if  any  Spaulding  manuscript  were  used  as  a 
mere  basis  and  slight  framework,  it  would  not  in- 

24  Private    Bible    reading   brought  out   these   ideas.     Compare 
'Biographical  Sketches,' p.  21.     Joseph's  uncle,  Jason  Mack,  as  a 
Seeker^  believed  « that  by  prayer  and  faith,  the  gifts  of  the  gospel, 
which  were  enjoyed  by  the   ancient  disciples,  might  be  attained.' 
Also  compare  P.   Pratt,  '  Autobiography,'  p.  31,  who  said  of  Rig- 
don's  preaching, '  here  was  the  ancient  gospel  in  due  form ;  his  views 
were  mine, — baptism  for  the  remission  of  sins  and  the  gift  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.'     Finally  compare  A.Campbell,  1824,    'We  neither 
advocate   Calvinism,   Arminianism,   Socinianism,   Arianism,  Trini- 
tarianism,  Unitarianism,  Deism,  nor  Sectarianism,  but  New  Testa- 
mentism.' 

25  Compare  «  Book  of  Mormon,'  56,  124,  235,  327,  369,  370,  379, 
468-470,  503,  566. 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    393 

validate  the  essential  integrity  of  the  work.  Al 
though  this  purported  series  of  plates28  cannot  be 
called  the  product  of  one  mind  'as  an  organic 
whole,'37  yet  the  integrity  of  the  Book  of  Mormon 
is  not  thereby  impaired;  the  discrete  parts  are  bound 


26  Viz. :  I.  of  Laban;  2.  of  Lehi;  3.  do.  abridged  by  Nephi; 
4.  do.  containing  « more  history  part ' ;  5.  do.  '  more  ministry 
part ' ;  6.  do.  «  mine  own  prophecies ' ;  7.  of  Zarahemla ;  8.  of 
Mormon  abridging  5 ;  9.  from  Jacob  to  King  Benjamin ;  10.  of 
Zeniff;  n.  of  Ether;  12.  of  Alma  and  his  afflictions;  13.  of 
Jared;  14.  Copies  of  « Scriptures ';  15.  Records  of  emigrants  to 
North;  1 6.  Epistles  of  twelve  prophets  at  various  times. 

21  The  alleged  Cowdery  interpolations  seem  impossible  when 
compared  with  this  Johnsonese  passage  of  his,  describing  the  scene 
of  Joseph's  money  digging.  <  Letters,'  p.  38 : — «  Some  forty  miles 
south,  or  down  the  river,  in  the  town  of  Harmony,  Susquehanna 
County,  Pennsylvania,  is  said  to  be  a  cave  or  subterraneous  recess, 
whether  entirely  formed  by  art  or  not  I  am  uninformed,  neither 
does  this  matter ;  but  such  is  said  to  be  the  case, — where  a  com 
pany  of  Spaniards,  a  long  time  since,  when  the  country  was  unin 
habited  by  white  settlers,  excavated  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth 
ore,  and  coined  a  large  quantity  of  money;  after  which  they  se 
cured  the  cavity  and  evacuated,  leaving  a  part  still  in  the  cave, 
purposing  to  return  at  some  distant  period.  A  long  time  elapsed 
and  this  account  came  from  one  of  the  individuals  who  was  first 
engaged  in  this  mining  business.  The  country  was  pointed  out 
and  the  spot  minutely  described.  This,  I  believe,  is  the  substance, 
so  far  as  my  memory  serves,  though  I  shall  not  pledge  my  veracity 
for  the  correctness  of  the  account  as  I  have  given.  Enough,  how 
ever,  was  credited  of  the  Spaniard's  story  to  excite  the  belief  of 
many  that  there  was  a  fine  sum  of  the  precious  metal  lying  coined 
in  this  subterraneous  vault,  among  whom  was  our  employer;  and 
accordingly  our  brother  was  required  to  spend  a  few  months  with 
some  others  in  excavating  the  earth,  in  pursuit  of  this  treasure.' 


394    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

together,  as  it  were,  by  a  single  cord.  It  is  the  line 
of  life,  the  thread  of  autobiography,  that  discloses 
the  real  origin  of  the  book.  The  various  experi 
ences  of  the  various  American  prophets,  could 
almost  be  said  to  form  a  '  Biographical  Sketch  of 
Joseph  Smith  the  Prophet  and  his  Progenitors,  for 
many  Generations.'  If  the  discovery  of  the  gold 
plates  was  suggested  by  the  paternal  dream  of  the 
Magic  Box,  and  the  beginning  of  the  Book  of  Mor 
mon  incorporates  the  dream  of  the  Fruit  Tree,  so  the 
cord  of  Joseph  junior's  experience  runs  unbroken 
from  I  Nephi  to  Moroni.  Without  the  aid  of  the 
commentator  to  explain  the  prophecies  of  the  '  com 
ing  laborer  in  the  vineyard'  as  Joseph  Smith,  one 
can  read  between  the  lines  the  meanings  of  the 
frequent  visions,  of  the  stones  for  interpreting,  of 
the  visits  of  the  angels  which  strike  the  beholder 
'  dumb,  weak  and  helpless.28 

To  sum  up:  These  marks  of  the  book  are  not 
the  marks  of  the  man  Rigdon.  Negatively,— there 
is  but  slight  coincidence  in  career  with  that  of  the 
visionary,  crystal-gazing  youth,  and  there  is  as  little 
resemblance  in  temperament;  positively, — the  simi 
larity  of  style  is  exact  between  the  '  Account  written 
by  the  hand  of  Mormon '  and  Joseph's  synchronous 

28 'Book  of  Mormon,'  144,  228,  346,  225,  349.  For  other  bio 
graphical  hints  compare  15,  20,  21,  34,  38,  44,  45,  114,  115,  180, 
181,  291,  292,  324,  559,  570,  576,  581,  574,  598,  603,  613. 


THE  SPAULDING-RIGDON  THEORY    395 

writings  contained  in  the  Book  of  Commandments  ; 
finally  on  the  title  page  of  the  first  edition  of  the 
Book  of  Mormon  is  that  inadvertent  admission  of 
authorship. 


APPENDIX  IV 
POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM 


APPENDIX  IV 

POLYGAMY   AND    HYPNOTISM 

THE  aim  of  this  appendix  is  fourfold : — to  show 
that  Joseph  Smith  was,  to  some  degree,  implicated 
in  polygamous  practices ;  to  trace  the  effects  on  his 
public  career;  to  present  his  crass  metaphysical 
theory  of  polygamy,  finally  to  show  that  some  of 
his  illicit  purposes  were  effected  through  hypnotic 
influence. 

It  has  been  claimed  that  the  doctrine  of  '  spiritual 
wifery '  was  introduced  by  the  older  men  and  not 
by  Smith.  There  were  three  chief  scapegoats.  In 
June,  1833,  Dr.  P.  Hurlbut,  before  a  conference  of 
high-priests  at  Kirtland,  '  was  accused  of  unchris 
tian  conduct  with  the  women.'  In  1843  the  '  spirit 
ual  wife  system '  was  fathered  upon  Dr.  Bennett, 
and  affidavits  were  issued  against  his  statement  that 
Smith  allowed  adultery.  Lastly  in  September,  1844, 
Rigdon  was  made  to  bear  the  brunt  of  odium.  In 
his  trial  at  Nauvoo,  the  following  allegations  were 
made:— that  he  talked  of  exposing  the  secrets  and 
iniquity  of  the  Saints;  that  he  came  here  with  a 
spirit  as  corrupt  as  hell  and  charged  the  Twelve 
399 


400    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

with  being  adulterers;  that  he  himself  had  been 
wallowing  in  filth  and  corruption  for  four  or  five 
years  past;  that  Brother  Joseph  shook  him  off  at  the 
conference  a  year  ago;  that  Sister  Emma  had  a 
good  many  feelings  against  Elder  Rigdon;  that 
Brigham  Young  finally  said  that  enough  was 
brought  forward  at  the  conference,  but  that  Brother 
Hyrum  plead  so  hard  that  it  was  kept  back. 

Now  for  the  other  side  of  the  case,  and  the 
counter  charges  against  the  prophet.  If  the  evi 
dence  against  Rigdon  is  ex  parte,  the  evidence 
against  Smith  is  circumstantial.  The  prophet's 
testimony  as  to  his  opponent's  actions  was  declared 
unprintable,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  Smith  urged  that 
there  should  be  kept  a  record  of  '  spiritual '  marriages. 
But  to  go  back  and  trace  the  beginnings  of  the  mat 
ter:  in  the  early  days  of  Mormonism  there  appear  to 
have  been  certain  underground  practices  which 
were  first  scorned  but  finally  embraced.  In  Janu 
ary,  1833,  Smith  tells  Brother  Gilbert  that  '  low  in 
sinuations  God  hates,  but  He  rejoices  in  an  honest 
heart  and  knows  better  who  is  guilty  than  he  does.' 
The  next  month  the  prophet  said  he  received  reve 
lations  '  to  unfold  the  mysteries  of  the  Kingdom ' 
and  also  that  '  my  handmaid,  Vienne  Jaques,  should 
receive  money  to  bear  her  expenses,  and  go  up  into 
the  land  of  Zion.'  On  the  verge  of  the  unprintable 
testimony  of  the  Rigdon  trial  there  is  an  incidental 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      401 

reference  to  this  'handmaid,'  as  'that  French 
woman.'  In  July,  1833,  Smith  wrote  to  the  brethren 
in  Zion  to  'guard  against  evils  which  may  arise 
from  accounts  given  of  women.'  On  December 
loth,  Gilbert  again  wrote  a  letter  which  the  prophet 
declared  contained  'low,  dark  and  blind  insinua 
tions';  for  this  the  brother  was  threatened  with 
excommunication.  As  regards  the  first  point  there 
is  no  proof  positive  of  Smith's  early  implication  in 
polygamy,  but  the  suspicion  of  participation  in 
illicit  private  practices  is  strengthened  by  the  vicissi 
tudes  of  his  later  public  career. 

'The  pages  of  General  Smith's  history,' says  an 
editorial  in  the  Times  and  Seasons,  'though  his 
enemies  never  ceased  to  persecute  him  and  hunt  for 
offenses  against  him,  are  as  unsullied  as  virgin 
snow.'  But  the  passages  already  cited  are  from 
Smith's  History;  if  they  do  not  allow  of  loose  con 
struction,  it  is  possible  to  turn  to  the  words  and 
writings  of  other  Saints.  The  Mormons  themselves 
have  furnished  an  answer  to  what  William  Smith 
called  'the  unaccountable  problem'  why  Mormons 
are  'numbered  with  Indians,  Hottentots,  Arabs, 
Turks,  Wolverines  and  horned  cattle.'  In  October, 
1843,  an  adherent  of  Brigham  Young  said,  'It  is 
true  that  our  city  is  open  for  all  who  wish  to  come, 
but  we  wish  to  have  the  privilege  of  enjoying  our 
religion  and  "peculiarities"  unmolested.'  'Those 


402     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

who  tell  lies  about  "  mysteries  "  to  injure  the  Saints,' 
it  was  added  later,  '  forget  the  Mormon  creed  "Mind 
your  own  business." '  In  April,  1844,  Hyrum  Smith 
proclaimed  that  '  Every  Elder  that  goes  from 
Nauvoo  to  preach  the  gospel,  if  he  preach  anything 
else,  we  will  silence  him  through  the  public  prints.' 
A  month  after  this,  Elder  Dykes,  preaching  in  Pitts- 
burg,  said,  '  the  audience  had  never  heard  a  Saint 
before;  they  had  many  and  awful  conjectures  about 
the  truth.'  At  a  church  conference  in  Michigan,  ten 
days  later,  'the  elders  were  strictly  charged  to  keep 
within  the  limits  of  the  first  principles  and  let  the 
mysteries  alone.'  One  week  afterwards,  in  Illinois, 
the  first  number  of  the  Nauvoo  Expositor  was  pub 
lished.  It  contained  affidavits  from  several  women 
alleging  illicit  invitation  from  high  church  digni 
taries.  The  official  repudiation  runs,  'Its  columns 
teemed  with  vituperative  abuse  of  Joseph  and  his 
friends.  That  it  was  the  fixed  purpose  of  its  man 
agers  to  continue  that  defamatory  course,  was  evi 
dent  from  the  matter  contained  in  its  columns  and 
in  their  private  admissions.  They  aimed  to  attack 
the  characters  of  many  respectable  citizens  of  both 
sexes.  The  tone  of  the  sheet  was  vulgar,  scurril 
ous,  and  untruthful.  The  people  felt  themselves 
outraged.' 

In  the  meanwhile  the    Times  and  Seasons  saw 
fit    to    publish    an  '  extract    from    a    letter  from 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      403 

the  vicinity  of  Nauvoo,'  which  says,  'The  excite 
ment  on  both  sides  of  the  river  against  the  Mor 
mons  is  increasing  very  fast.  The  conduct  of 
Joseph  Smith  and  the  other  leaders,  is  such  that  no 
community  of  white  men  can  tolerate.'  On  June 
1 8th,  General  Smith,  Mayor  of  Nauvoo,  declared  the 
city  under  martial  law,  and  ordered  the  city  mar 
shal  to  see  that  '  no  persons  pass  in  or  out  of  the 
city  without  due  orders.'  Nine  days  after  this,  the,,., 
prophet  was  shot  down  by  sla^^ 
jail,  having  first  emptied  two  barr.els  of  .his.  six- 
shooter  into  the  crowd  of  his  assailants^  To  touch 
on  the  political  issues  of  this  'martyrdom'  is  to 
summarize  the  evidence  for  the  second  count:  that 
it  was  not  merely  territorial  aspirations,  tampering 
with  slaves  and  other  alleged  charges  that  checked 
Smith's  public  career,  but  also  the  neglect  to  sup 
press  the  more  or  less  subterranean  practice  of 
polygamy. 

In  the  third  place,  to  turn  to  the  theory  of  the 
thing,  and  to  seek  to  determine  Smith's  share  in  the 
metaphysics  of  Mormonism, — if  one  may  so  term 
their  crude  materialism.  The  early  documents 
should  first  be  looked  at.  Orson  Pratt  as  commen 
tator  of  the  Book  of  Mormon  deduces  an  inherent 
doctrine  of  polygamy  from  the  large  size  of  the 
Nephite  families.  This  is  practically  inconsistent 
with  the  anti-polygamy  passage,  previously  quoted, 


404    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

but  not  theoretically  inconsistent  with  the  later 
Mormon  canonical  writings.  Revelation  being  con 
tinuous  is  retroactive.  In  this  way  the  monoga 
mous  Book  of  Commandments  is  modified  and 
superseded  by  the  polygamous  book  of  Doctrine 
and  Covenants.  In  the  former  the  seventh  com 
mandment  is  emphasized,  but  the  successive  edi 
tions  of  the  latter  gradually  approach  the  full  fledged 
Revelation  on  the  Plurality  of  Wives. 

As  early  as  October,  1831,  a  revelation  was  ad 
dressed  through  the  seer  to  William  E.  McLellin: 
'  Commit  not  adultery,  a  temptation  with  which  thou 
hast  been  troubled.'  By  1835,  the  trouble  in  the 
camp  of  Zion  called  out  this  public  disavowal:  'In 
asmuch  as  this  Church  of  Christ  has  been  reproached 
with  the  crime  of  fornication,  and  polygamy :  we 
declare  that  we  believe,  that  one  man  should  have 
one  wife;  and  one  woman,  but  one  husband,  except 
in  case  of  death,  when  either  is  at  liberty  to  marry 
again.  It  is  not  right  to  persuade  a  woman  to  be 
baptized  contrary  to  the  will  of  her  husband,  neither 
is  it  lawful  to  influence  her  to  leave  her  husband.' ' 

In  1839,  Parley  Pratt  issued  his  Persecutions  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints ;  in  chapter  ten  of  this  pamphlet 
the  author  insisted  that  there  was  no  polygamy 
among  the  Mormons.  One  year  later  Orson  Pratt 
published  his  Treatise  on  the  Regeneration  and 

1 « Doctrine  and  Covenants,'  first  edition,  §  IOI. 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM       405 

Eternal  Duration  of  Matter.  This  contained,  in 
germ,  those  teachings  on  the  '  Preexistence  of 
Man '  and  '  Celestial  Marriage '  which  now  form 
part  of  the  Creed  of  the  Utah  Saints.  In  1841,  in 
answer  to  numerous  questioners  Joseph  Smith 
issued  his  Articles  of  Faith,'1  the  last  of  which  runs : 

2  <  We  believe  in  God  the  Eternal  Father,  and  in  His  Son  Jesus 
Christ,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We  believe  that  men  will  be  punished  for  their  own  sins,  and 
not  for  Adam's  transgression. 

We  believe  that,  through  the  atonement  of  Christ,  all  mankind 
may  be  saved  by  obedience  to  the  laws  and  ordinances  of  the  gospel. 

We  believe  that  these  ordinances  are  :  First,  Faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ ;  Second,  Repentance ;  Third,  Baptism  by  immersion 
for  the  remission  of  sins ;  Fourth,  Laying  on  of  hands  for  the  gift 
of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We  believe  that  a  man  must  be  called  of  God,  by  prophecy,  and 
by  laying  on  of  hands,  by  those  who  are  in  authority,  to  preach  the 
gospel  and  administer  in  the  ordinances  thereof. 

We  believe  in  the  same  organization  that  existed  in  the  primi 
tive  Church,  viz. :  Apostles,  Prophets,  Pastors,  Teachers,  Evangel 
ists,  etc. 

We  believe  in  the  gifts  of  tongues,  prophecy,  revelation,  visions, 
healing,  interpretation  of  tongues,  etc. 

We  believe  the  Bible  to  be  the  Word  of  God,  as  far  as  it  is 
translated  correctly ;  we  also  believe  the  «  Book  of  Mormon  '  to  be 
the  Word  of  God. 

We  believe  all  that  God  has  revealed,  all  that  He  does  now  re 
veal,  and  we  believe  that  He  will  yet  reveal  many  great  and  im 
portant  things  pertaining  to  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

We  believe  in  the  literal  gathering  of  Israel,  and  in  the  restora 
tion  of  the  Ten  Tribes ;  that  Zion  will  be  built  upon  this  con 
tinent  ;  that  Christ  will  reign  personally  upon  the  earth,  and  that 
the  earth  will  be  renewed  and  receive  its  paradisaic  glory. 

We  claim  the  privilege  of  worshipping  Almighty  God  according 


406    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

'We  believe  in  being  honest,  true,  chaste,  benevo 
lent,  virtuous.' 

Thus  far  polygamy  was  esoteric;  it  was  not  till 
after  Smith's  death  that  the  doctrine  was  publicly 
avowed  in  such  brochures  as  Orson  Spencer's 
Patriarchal  Order,  or  Plurality  of  Wives.  In  the 
meantime  the  prophet  had  written  for  the  elect  his 
notorious  Revelation  on  the  Eternity  of  the  Marriage 
Covenant,  including  Plurality  of  Wives*  His  son 
Joseph  Smith  3d,  founder  of  the  '  Reorganized 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,'  has  at 
tempted  to  disprove  the  authenticity  of  this  revelation 
of  July  1 2th,  1843.*  It  is  true  that  the  1845  edition 
of  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants  does  not  contain  this 
revelation,  while  the  last  volume  of  the  Times  and 
Seasons  of  1846,  contains  the  prophet's  History  only 
through  August  nth,  1834.  The  external  evidence 

to  the  dictates  of  our  conscience,  and  allow  all  men  the  same 
privilege,  let  them  worship  how,  where,  or  what  they  may. 

We  believe  in  being  subject  to  kings,  presidents,  rulers,  and 
magistrates,  in  obeying,  honoring  and  sustaining  the  law. 

We  believe  in  being  honest,  true,  chaste,  benevolent,  virtuous, 
and  in  doing  good  to  all  men ;  indeed,  we  may  say  that  we  follow 
the  admonition  of  Paul,  We  believe  all  things,  we  hope  all  things, 
we  have  endured  many  things,  and  hope  to  be  able  to  endure  all 
things.  If  there  is  anything  virtuous,  lovely,  or  of  good  report,  or 
praiseworthy,  we  seek  after  these  things. 

JOSEPH  SMITH.' 

3  See  end  of  this  Appendix. 

4  Compare  <  Reply  to  Orson  Pratt,'  also  '  One  Wife  or  Many  ?  ' 
and  •  Was  Joseph  Smith  a  Polygamist  ?  ' 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM       407 

may  be  negative,  but  the  internal  is  not.  The 
publication  was  posthumous,  but  the  sentiments 
were  anything  but  post-mortem.  The  passages 
commanding  Emma  Smith  to  be  virtuous,  while  her 
husband  may  do  as  he  pleases,  are  borne  out  by  the 
extracts  already  quoted  and  especially  by  Mrs. 
Kimball's  testimony,  as  given  below. 

But  to  present  briefly  the  Mormon  theory 
whereby  these  practices  are  justified,  and  then  to 
determine  Smith's  share  in  them.  '  Celestial '  mar 
riage,  according  to  the  orthodox  Saints,  opens  the 
way  for  all  women  who  wish  to  marry  to  fill  the 
measure  of  their  creation.  ...  It  shows  how 
the  innumerable  creations  of  God  [/.  e.,  this  world 
and  other  planets]  may  be  peopled  with  intel 
ligences.  .  .  .  Woman  without  man  and  man 
without  woman  cannot  be  saved.  The  larger  the 
progeny  a  man  has,  the  greater  will  be  the  fulness 
of  his  eternal  glory.  .  .  .  God  was  once  a 
man,  but  He  has  so  advanced  in  intelligence  and 
power  that  He  may  now  be  called,  comparatively 
speaking,  perfect,  infinite  etc.,  but  He  has  still  the 
form  and  figure  of  a  man.  This  anthopomorphism 
was  thus  presented  by  Orson  Pratt  in  his  Ab 
surdities  of  Immaterialism  as  early  as  1849: — 'The 
resemblance  between  man  and  God  has  reference, 
as  we  have  already  observed,  to  the  shape  or  figure; 
other  qualities  may  or  may  not  resemble  each 


408     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

other.  Man  has  legs,  so  has  God,  as  is  evident 
from  His  appearance  to  Abraham.  Man  walks 
with  his  legs,  so  does  God  sometimes,  as  is  evi 
dent  from  His  going  with  Abraham  towards  Sodom. 
God  cannot  only  walk,  but  He  can  move  up 
or  down  through  the  air  without  using  His 
legs  as  in  the  process  of  walking.  (See  Gen. 
17:22;  also  11:5;  also  35:  13. — "A  man  wrestled 
with  Jacob  until  the  breaking  of  day; "  after  which, 
Jacob  says — "  I  have  seen  God  face  to  face,  and  my 
life  is  preserved." — Gen.  32:  24-30.  That  this  per 
son  had  legs  is  evident  from  his  wrestling  with 
Jacob.  His  image  and  likeness  was  so  much  like 
man's,  that  Jacob  at  first  supposed  him  to  be  a 
man. — (See  24th  verse.)  God,  though  in  the 
figure  of  a  man,  has  many  powers  that  man  has 
not  got.  He  can  go  upwards  through  the  air.  He 
can  waft  Himself  from  world  to  world  by  His  own 
self-moving  powers.  These  are  powers  not  pos 
sessed  by  man  only  through  faith,  as  in  the  in 
stances  of  Enoch  and  Elijah.  Therefore,  though  in 
the  figure  or  a  man,  He  has  powers  far  superior  to 
man.  .  .  .  The  Godhead  may  be  further  illustrated 
by  a  council,  consisting  of  three  men— all  possessing 
equal  wisdom,  knowledge,  and  truth,  together  with 
equal  qualifications  in  every  other  respect.  Each 
person  would  be  a  separate  distinct  person  or  sub 
stance  from  the  other  two,  and  yet  the  three  would 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM       409 

form  but  ONE  council.  Each  alone  possesses,  by 
supposition,  the  same  wisdom  and  truth  that  the 
three  united  or  the  ONE  council  possesses.'5 

Two  months  before  his  death  the  prophet  taught 
practically  the  same  doctrines  as  Pratt.  The  fol 
lowing  are  extracts  from  his  conference  speech  of 
April,  1844:— 

<  First,  God  Himself,  who  sits  enthroned  in  yonder 
heavens,  is  a  man  like  unto  one  of  yourselves,  that  is  the 
great  secret.  .  .  .  The  first  Hebrew  word  in  the 
Bible  reads,  '  the  head  one  of  the  Gods  brought 
forth  the  Gods  in  the  Grand  Council.  .  .  .  The 
word  create  means  to  organize.  .  .  .  Hence  we 
infer  that  God  had  materials  to  organize  the  world 
out  of  chaos.  .  .  .  Intelligence  exists  upon  a  self- 
existent  principle,  there  is  no  creation  about  it.  All  the 
spirits  that  God  ever  sent  into  the  world  are  susceptible 
of  enlargement  .  .  .  have  a  privilege  to  advance 
like  Himself.  .  .  .  These  things  were  given  me  by 
the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  ...  I  can  enter 
into  the  mysteries ;  I  can  enter  largely  into  the  eternal 
worlds. ' 

If  Smith  may  be  said  to  have  had  any  metaphys 
ical  theory  of  polygamy,  it  may  be  found  in  these 
distorted  borrowings;  but,  at  the  least,  these  preach- 

5  Compare  '  Handbook  of  Reference,'  The  Religion  of  the 
Latter-day  Saints  ;  P.  P.  Pratt,  «  Key  to  the  Science  of  Theology  '  ; 
Orson  Spencer,  '  Patriarchal  Order,  or  Plurality  of  Wives  ' ;  The 
Seer,  pp.  30,  38,  103. 


410    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

ments  had  corresponding  practices,  as  is  shown  by 
certain  social  bye-products  of  the  system. 

The  materialism  of  the  Latter-day  Saints  has 
been  compared  to  fourth  century  Gnosticism,6 
and  attempts  have  actually  been  made  to  connect 
Mormon  mysteries  with  Eleusinian  mysteries.7 
The  connection  is  absurdly  impossible,  yet  there 
appears  to  have  been  a  dash  of  ethnic  occultism  in 
the  practices  of  the  Saints.  To  get  at  this,  one  is 
forced  to  notice  the  subterranean,  to  explore  the 
cloaca  maxima  of  Mormon  literature, — the  various 
'exposures'  of  renegades  and  apostates.  The  de 
scriptions  of  'endowment'  rites  as  reported  by 
Hyde,  Van  Dusen  and  other  'Jack-Mormons'  are 
in  themselves  untrustworthy;  they  nevertheless 
present  this  common  feature — a  resemblance  to 
certain  scenes  which  took  place  in  France  two  gen 
erations  before.  The  alleged  doings  in  the  Nauvoo 
temple  are  like  the  real  doings  around  Mesmer's 
baquets  magnetiques,  practice  which,  in  their  hys 
teric  excesses,  called  forth  the  secret  report  of  the 
royal  commissioners  on  the  dangers  of  magnetism 
in  respect  to  morality.8 

There  is  here  indeed,  an  analogy  as  to  abnormal 
psychoses,  but  in  addition  to  the  general  inference 

*  McClintock  and  Strong,  article  «  Mormonism.' 

7  T.  W.  P.  Taylder,  •  The  Mormon's  Own  Book,'  Chapter  4. 

8  Binet  and  F6re,  p.  18. 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      411 

there  are  more  specific  statements.  The  arch- 
apostate  Maria  Ward,  author  of  Female  Life  Among 
the  Mormons,  asserts  that  she  was  mesmerized  into 
marrying,  some  time  after  Parley  Pratt  had  taught 
Mr.  Ward  the  secrets  of  magnetism.  Finally  an 
anonymous  pamphlet  entitled  Anna  Little,  the 
Mesmeric  Seeress  of  Nauvoo,  tells  how  this  clair 
voyant  wonder  had  so  completely  mastered  the 
science  of  animal  magnetism  that  Joseph  Smith 
knew  the  value  of  such  an  auxiliary  and  kept  her  in 
the  sanctuary  of  the  Communicant  Sisters.  All 
these  statements  are  disallowed  by  the  Saints  and 
are,  in  truth,  of  secondary  evidential  value;  they 
yet  resemble  one  another  in  containing  the  everlast 
ing  charge  brought  against  dabblers  in  the  occult, 
from  the  Neoplatonists  to  the  Spiritualists, — the 
charge  that  over-indulgence  in  abnormal  psychic 
practices  tends  to  looseness  in  moral  standards. 

There  remains  evidence  of  primary  value  that  the 
Mormons,  in  some  instances,  exercised  over  their 
adherents  undue  influence  of  a  quasi-hypnotic 
character.  The  legal  side  of  the  case  may  serve  as 
a  standpoint,  for  the  courts  early  took  cognizance 
of  the  matter.  In  1844  a  Tennessee  lawyer  declared 
that  the  Mormon  methods  were  unlawful;  in  1848, 
in  Ohio,  there  was  recorded  a  '  Law  Case,  exhibiting 
the  most  extraordinary  developments  peculiar  to 
modern  times,  arising  from  an  implicit  obedience  to 


412     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

the  dictates  of  Mesmeric  clairvoyance  as  related  by 
a  Mormon  prophet.'9 

Turning  to  Joseph  Smith  and  his  apparent  hyp 
notic  influence  over  people,  his  early  suggestive 
successes  must  be  kept  in  mind  before  taking  up 
the  case  of  Mrs.  Kimball.  But  the  three  witnesses 
to  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  Newel  Knight  the 
demoniac,  and  those  '  cured  by  faith '  were  not  the 
only  subjects.  Like  the  present  day  Kentucky  ex- 
horter,  who  calls  out  the  revivalistic  'jerks,'  the 
prophet  seems  to  have  been  the  means  of  inducing 
a  real  collective  hypnosis.  'His  eloquence,'  says 
Parley  Pratt,  '  was  not  polished  and  studied,  not 
smoothed  and  softened  by  education.  I  have  even 
known  him  to  retain  a  congregation  of  willing  and 
anxious  listeners  for  many  hours  together  while  they 
were  laughing  one  moment  and  weeping  the  next.' I0 

But  finally  besides  influencing  crowds  by  his 
speech  and  his  presence,  Smith  appears  to  have 
learned  that  mental  suggestion  may  be  efficacious 
not  only  at  the  instant,  but  some  time  after.11  How 

9  Compare    Sabin,   '  Bibliotheca   Americana,1   Volume   Ix,   No. 
39,340.     This  pamphlet  was  published  at  Cincinnati,  where  the 
city  ordinances  early  prohibited  public  mesmeric  exhibitions,  and 
where   there   was   some  complaint  of  the   difficulty  of  keeping 
female  servants  out  of  the  clutches  of  the  Mormons. 

10  '  Journal,'  p.  47. 

11  Of  deferred  suggestion,  Moll  says,  p.  157, « any  suggestion  that 
takes  effect  in  hypnosis,  will  also  take  place  post-hypnotically.' 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      413 

far  the  chief  of  the  Saints  utilized  the  principle  of 
suggestibility,  immediate  or  deferred,  in  the  sub 
jugation  of  neurotic  women  is  indeterminable.  The 
allegations  of  ruined  and  perjured  apostates  are  as 
little  to  be  believed  as,  for  example,  the  statement 
of  the  interested  Brigham  Young  that  Emily  and 
Eliza  Patridge  were  'sealed'  to  the  prophet,  Emma 
Smith  being  present  and  giving  her  '  full  and  free 
consent  for  them  to  be  the  wives  of  Joseph.' " 
If  such  things  were  done,  they  were  done  on  the 
sly.  In  September,  1843,  a  sister  of  a  Mormon 
convert,  who  had  noticed  that  Elder  Adams  had 
brought  an  extra  wife  from  England,  wrote  home 
that  she  could  not  believe  that  Joseph  would  ever 
sanction  the  doctrine  of  patriarchal  plurality.13  Yet 
four  months  before  this,  a  practical  sanction  had 
been  given.  Littlefield  asserts,  on  the  best  author 
ity,  that  beside  the  two  women  already  mentioned 
Maria  and  Sarah  Laurence  were  declared  to  have 
been  '  sealed'  to  the  prophet.14  But  of  all  the  cases, 
that  of  Mrs.  Lucy  Walter  Kimball  is  the  most  au 
thentic,  and  bears  internally  as  mark  of  genuine 
ness — the  moral  struggle  of  the  subject.  In  its 
criminal  aspects,15  it  is  fit  to  rank  with  the  case  of 

« «  Life,'  p.  23. 
13 «  Reminiscences,'  p.  52. 
»4  Overland  Monthly,  December,  1890. 

15  Compare    George   Trumbull   Ladd,  4  The  Legal  Aspects  of 
Hypnotism,'  1902,  p.  22 : — '  That  the  person  who  deliberately  sets 


414    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Gabrielle  Bompard  or  raff  air  e  Chambige.™  It  is 
here  offered  as  a  matter  of  post-hypnotic  sugges 
tion,  with  deferred  hallucination: — 

'In  1845  I  married  President  Heber  C.  Kimball. 
.  .  .  May  ist,  1843,  I  consented  to  become  the 
prophet's  wife.  In  1842  President  Joseph  Smith 
sought  an  interview  with  me,  and  said:  "I  have  a 
message  for  you.  I  have  been  commanded  of  God 
to  take  another  wife  and  you  are  the  woman."  My 
astonishment  knew  no  bounds.  .  .  .  The 
prophet  discerned  my  sorrow.  He  saw  how  un 
happy  I  was  .  .  .  and  said:  "Although  I  can 
not,  under  existing  circumstances,  acknowledge 
you  as  my  wife,  the  time  is  near  when  we  will  go 
beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  then  you  will  be 
acknowledged  and  honored  as  my  wife.  ...  I 
will  give  you  until  to-morrow  to  decide  this  matter. 
If  you  reject  this  message  the  gate  will  be  closed 
forever  against  you."  This  aroused  every  drop  of 
Scotch  in  my  veins.  I  felt  at  this  moment  that  1 
was  called  to  place  myself  upon  the  altar  a  living 
sacrifice — perhaps  to  brook  the  world  in  disgrace  and 


about  subjugating  another  by  repeated  hypnotizing  in  order  to 
make  that  other  his  unwilling  tool  for  the  commission  of  crime,  is 
himself  a  criminal  of  the  worst  and  most  dangerous  order,  and 
deserves,  if  detected  and  convicted,  the  severest  punishment  which 
the  law  allows,  I  do  not  need  to  argue.' 
16  Compare  Bernheim,  chapter  viii. 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      415 

incur  the  displeasure  and  contempt  of  my  youthful 
companions.  .  .  .  This  was  too  much,  for  as 
yet  no  shadow  had  crossed  my  path.  ...  I 
said:  "Although  you  are  a  prophet  of  God  you 
could  not  induce  me  to  take  a  step  of  so  great  im 
portance,  unless  1  knew  that  God  approved  my 
course.  I  would  rather  die.  I  have  tried  to  pray, 
but  received  no  comfort,  no  light."  ...  He 
walked  across  the  room,  returned  .  .  .  and 
said:  .  .  .  "You  shall  have  a  manifestation  of 
the  will  of  God  concerning  you;  a  testimony  that 
you  can  never  deny.  I  will  tell  you  what  it  shall  be. 
It  shall  be  that  joy  and  peace  that  you  never  knew." 
Oh,  how  earnestly  I  prayed  for  these  words  to  be 
fulfilled.  It  was  near  dawn  after  another  sleepless 
night  when  my  room  was  lighted  up  by  a  heavenly 
influence.  To  me  it  was,  in  comparison,  like  the 
brilliant  sun  bursting  through  the  darkest  cloud. 
The  words  of  the  prophet  were  indeed  fulfilled. 
My  soul  was  filled  with  a  calm,  sweet  peace  that  "  I 
never  knew."  Supreme  happiness  took  possession 
of  me,  and  I  received  a  powerful  and  irresistible 
testimony  of  the  truth  of  plural  marriage/ 


'  Revelation  on  the  Eternity  of  the  Marriage  Cove 
nant,  including  Plurality  of  Wives.  Given  through 
Joseph,  the  Seer,  in  Nauvoo,  Hancock  County,  Illinois, 
July  1 2th,  184.3. 


416    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  you,  my  servant 
Joseph,  that  inasmuch  as  you  have  inquired  of  my  hand, 
to  know  wherein  I,  the  Lord,  justified  my  servants 
Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob;  as  also  Moses,  David  and 
Solomon,  my  servants,  as  touching  the  principle  and 
doctrine  of  their  having  many  wives  and  concubines : 

Behold  !  and  lo,  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  will 
answer  thee  as  touching  this  matter  : 

Therefore,  prepare  thy  heart  to  receive  and  obey  the 
instructions  which  I  am  about  to  give  unto  you ;  for  all 
those  who  have  this  law  revealed  unto  them  must  obey 
the  same ; 

For  behold  !  I  reveal  unto  you  a  new  and  everlasting 
covenant ;  and  if  ye  abide  not  that  covenant,  then  are  ye 
damned ;  for  no  one  can  reject  this  covenant,  and  be 
permitted  to  enter  into  my  glory ; 

For  all  who  will  have  a  blessing  at  my  hands,  shall 
abide  the  law  which  was  appointed  for  that  blessing,  and 
the  conditions  thereof,  as  were  instituted  from  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world  : 

And  as  pertaining  to  the  new  and  everlasting  cove 
nant,  it  was  instituted  for  the  fulness  of  my  glory ;  and 
he  that  receiveth  a  fulness  thereof,  must  and  shall  abide 
the  law,  or  he  shall  be  damned,  saith  the  Lord  God. 

And  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  the  conditions  of  this 
law  are  these: — All  covenants,  contracts,  bonds,  obliga 
tions,  oaths,  vows,  performances,  connections,  associa 
tions,  or  expectations,  that  are  not  made,  and  entered 
into,  and  sealed,  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  of  him 
who  is  anointed,  both  as  well  for  time  and  for  all  eternity, 
and  that  too  most  holy,  by  revelation  and  commandment 
through  the  medium  of  mine  anointed,  whom  I  have  ap 
pointed  on  the  earth  to  hold  this  power,  (and  I  have  ap- 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      417 

pointed  unto  my  servant  Joseph  to  hold  this  power  in  the 
last  days,  and  there  is  never  but  one  on  the  earth  at  a 
time,  on  whom  this  power  and  the  keys  of  this  Priesthood 
are  conferred)  are  of  no  efficacy,  virtue,  or  force,  in  and 
after  the  resurrection  from  the  dead ;  for  all  contracts 
that  are  not  made  unto  this  end,  have  an  end  when  men 
are  dead. 

Behold  !  mine  house  is  a  house  of  order,  saith  the  Lord 
God,  and  not  a  house  of  confusion. 

Will  I  accept  of  an  offering,  saith  the  Lord,  that  is  not 
made  in  my  name  ! 

Or,  will  I  receive  at  your  hands  that  which  I  have  not 
appointed ! 

And  will  I  appoint  unto  you,  saith  the  Lord,  except  it 
be  by  law,  even  as  I  and  my  Father  ordained  unto  you, 
before  the  world  was  ! 

I  am  the  Lord  thy.  God,  and  give  unto  you  this  com 
mandment,  that  no  one  shall  come  to  the  Father  but  by 
me,  or  by  my  word,  which  is  my  law,  saith  the  Lord ; 

And  everything  that  is  in  the  world,  whether  it  be  or 
dained  of  men,  by  thrones,  or  principalities,  or  powers, 
or  things  of  name,  whatsoever  they  may  be,  that  are  not 
by  me,  or  by  my  word,  saith  the  Lord,  shall  be  thrown 
down,  and  shall  not  remain  after  men  are  dead,  neither 
in  nor  after  the  resurrection,  saith  the  Lord  your  God ; 

For  whatsoever  things  remain,  are  by  me ;  and  what 
soever  things  are  not  by  me,  shall  be  shaken  and  des 
troyed. 

Therefore,  if  a  man  marry  him  a  wife  in  the  world, 
and  he  marry  her  not  by  me,  nor  by  my  word ;  and  he 
covenant  with  her  so  long  as  he  is  in  the  world,  and  she 
with  him,  their  covenant  and  marriage  are  not  of  force 
when  they  are  dead,  and  when  they  are  out  of  the  world  ; 


4i 8     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

therefore,  they  are  not  bound  by  any  law  when  they  are 
out  of  the  world  ; 

Therefore,  when  they  are  out  of  the  world,  they  neither 
marry,  nor  are  given  in  marriage;  but  are  appointed 
angels  in  heaven,  which  angels  are  ministering  servants, 
to  minister  for  those  who  are  worthy  of  a  far  more,  and 
an  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory ; 

For  these  angels  did  not  abide  my  law,  therefore  they 
cannot  be  enlarged,  but  remain  separately  and  singly, 
without  exaltation,  in  their  saved  condition  to  all  eternity, 
and  from  henceforth  are  not  Gods,  but  are  angels  of 
God,  for  ever  and  ever. 

And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man  marry  a 
wife,  and  make  a  covenant  with  her  for  time  and  for  all 
eternity,  if  that  covenant  is  not  by  me,  or  by  my  word, 
which  is  my  law,  and  is  not  sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
promise,  through  him  whom  I  have  anointed  and  ap 
pointed  unto  this  power — then  it  is  not  valid,  neither  of 
force  when  they  are  out  of  the  world ;  because  they  are 
not  joined  by  me,  saith  the  Lord,  neither  by  my  word ; 
when  they  are  out  of  the  world,  it  cannot  be  received 
there,  because  the  angels  and  the  Gods  are  appointed 
there,  by  whom  they  cannot  pass ;  they  cannot,  therefore, 
inherit  my  glory,  for  my  house  is  a  house  of  order,  saith 
the  Lord  God. 

And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man  marry  a 
wife  by  my  word,  which  is  my  law,  and  by  the  new  and 
everlasting  covenant,  and  it  is  sealed  unto  them  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  of  promise,  by  him  who  is  anointed,  unto 
whom  I  have  appointed  this  power,  and  the  keys  of  this 
Priesthood,  and  it  shall  be  said  unto  them,  ye  shall  come 
forth  in  the  first  resurrection ;  and  if  it  be  after  the  first 
resurrection,  in  the  next  resurrection ;  and  shall  inherit 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM      419 

thrones,  kingdoms,  principalities,  and  powers,  domin 
ions,  all  heights  and  depths — then  it  shall  be  written  in 
the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life,  that  he  shall  commit  no  mur 
der  whereby  to  shed  innocent  blood,  and  if  ye  abide  in 
my  covenant,  and  commit  no  murder  whereby  to  shed 
innocent  blood,  it  shall  be  done  unto  them  in  all  things 
whatsoever  my  servant  had  put  upon  them,  in  time,  and 
through  all  eternity,  and  shall  be  of  full  force  when  they 
are  out  of  the  world ;  and  they  shall  pass  by  the  angels, 
and  the  Gods,  which  are  set  there,  to  their  exaltation  and 
glory  in  all  things,  as  hath  been  sealed  upon  their  heads, 
which  glory  shall  be  a  fulness  and  a  continuation  of  the 
seeds  forever  and  ever. 

Then  shall  they  be  Gods,  because  they  have  no  end ; 
therefore  shall  they  be  from  everlasting  to  everlasting, 
because  they  continue ;  then  shall  they  be  above  all,  be 
cause  all  things  are  subject  unto  them.  Then  shall  they 
be  Gods,  because  they  have  all  power,  and  the  angels 
are  subject  unto  them. 

Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  except  ye  abide  my  law, 
ye  cannot  attain  this  glory ; 

For  straight  is  the  gate,  and  narrow  the  way  that 
leadeth  unto  the  exaltation  and  continuation  of  the  lives, 
and  few  there  be  that  find  it,  because  ye  receive  me  not 
in  the  world,  neither  do  ye  know  me. 

But  if  ye  receive  me  in  the  world,  then  shall  ye  know 
me,  and  shall  receive  your  exaltation,  that  where  I  am, 
ye  shall  be  also. 

This  is  eternal  lives,  to  know  the  only  wise  and  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ,  whom  he  hath  sent.  I  am  he. 
Receive  ye,  therefore,  my  law. 

Broad  is  the  gate,  and  wide  the  way  that  leadeth  to 
the  deaths,  and  many  there  are  that  go  in  thereat ;  be- 


420  THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

cause  they  receive  me  not,  neither  do  they  abide  in  my 
law. 

Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you  if  a  man  marry  a  wife  ac 
cording  to  my  word,  and  they  are  sealed  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  promise,  according  to  mine  appointment,  and 
he  or  she  shall  commit  any  sin  or  transgression  of  the  new 
and  everlasting  covenant  whatever,  and  all  manner  of 
blasphemies,  and  if  they  commit  no  murder,  wherein 
they  shed  innocent  blood — yet  they  shall  come  forth  in 
the  first  resurrection,  and  enter  into  their  exaltation ;  but 
they  shall  be  destroyed  in  the  flesh,  and  shall  be  delivered 
unto  the  buffetings  of  Satan  unto  the  day  of  redemption, 
saith  the  Lord  God. 

The  blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  shall 
not  be  forgiven  in  the  world,  nor  out  of  the  world,  is  in 
that  ye  commit  murder,  wherein  ye  shed  innocent  blood, 
and  assent  unto  my  death,  after  ye  have  received  my  new 
and  everlasting  covenant,  saith  the  Lord  God ;  and  he 
that  abideth  not  this  law,  can  in  no  wise  enter  into  my 
glory,  but  shall  be  damned,  saith  the  Lord. 

I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  will  give  unto  thee  the 
law  of  my  Holy  Priesthood,  as  was  ordained  by  me,  and 
my  Father,  before  the  world  was. 

Abraham  received  all  things,  whatsoever  he  received, 
by  revelation,  and  commandment,  by  my  word,  saith  the 
Lord,  and  hath  entered  into  his  exaltation,  and  sitteth 
upon  his  throne. 

Abraham  received  promises  concerning  his  seed,  and 
of  the  fruit  of  his  loins — from  whose  loins  ye  are,  namely, 
my  servant  Joseph — which  were  to  continue  as  long  as 
they  were  in  the  world ;  and  as  touching  Abraham  and 
his  seed,  out  of  the  world  they  should  continue ;  both  in 
the  world  and  out  of  the  world  should  they  continue  as 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM       421 

innumerable  as  the  stars ;  or,  if  ye  were  to  count  the  sand 
upon  the  seashore,  ye  could  not  number  them. 

This  promise  is  yours,  also,  because  ye  are  of  Abra 
ham,  and  the  promise  was  made  unto  Abraham ;  and  by 
this  law  are  the  continuation  of  the  works  of  my  Father, 
wherein  he  glorifieth  Himself. 

Go  ye,  therefore,  and  do  the  works  of  Abraham ;  enter 
ye  into  my  law,  and  ye  shall  be  saved. 

But  if  ye  enter  not  into  my  law  ye  cannot  receive  the 
promise  of  my  Father,  which  he  made  unto  Abraham. 

God  commanded  Abraham,  and  Sarah  gave  Hagar  to 
Abraham  to  wife.  And  why  did  she  do  it  ?  Because 
this  was  the  law,  and  from  Hagar  sprang  many  people. 
This,  therefore,  was  fulfilling,  among  other  things,  the 
promises. 

Was  Abraham,  therefore,  under  condemnation  ? 
Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  Nay;  for  I,  the  Lord,  com 
manded  it. 

Abraham  was  commanded  to  offer  his  son  Isaac; 
nevertheless,  it  was  written,  thou  shalt  not  kill.  Abra 
ham,  however,  did  not  refuse,  and  it  was  accounted  unto 
him  for  righteousness. 

Abraham  received  concubines,  and  they  bear  him 
children,  and  it  was  accounted  unto  him  for  righteous 
ness,  because  they  were  given  unto  him,  and  he  abode  in 
my  law,  as  Isaac  also,  and  Jacob  did  none  other  things 
than  that  which  they  were  commanded,  and  because  they 
did  none  other  things  than  that  which  they  were  com 
manded,  they  have  entered  into  their  exaltation,  accord 
ing  to  the  promises,  and  sit  upon  thrones,  and  are  not 
angels,  but  are  Gods. 

David  also  received  many  wives  and  concubines,  as 
also  Solomon  and  Moses  my  servants  j  as  also  many 


422     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

others  of  my  servants,  from  the  beginning  of  creation 
until  this  time ;  and  in  nothing  did  they  sin,  save  in  those 
things  which  they  received  not  of  me. 

David's  wives  and  concubines  were  given  unto  him,  of 
me,  by  the  hand  of  Nathan,  my  servant,  and  others  of 
the  prophets  who  had  the  keys  of  this  power  ;  and  in  none 
of  these  things  did  he  sin  against  me,  save  in  the  case 
of  Uriah  and  his  wife ;  and,  therefore  he  hath  fallen  from 
his  exaltation,  and  received  his  portion ;  and  he  shall  not 
inherit  them  out  of  the  world;  for  I  gave  them  unto 
another,  saith  the  Lord. 

I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  I  gave  unto  thee,  my 
servant  Joseph,  an  appointment,  and  restore  all  things ; 
ask  what  ye  will,  and  it  shall  be  given  unto  you  accord 
ing  to  my  word : 

And  as  ye  have  asked  concerning  adultery — verily, 
verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  a  man  receiveth  a  wife  in  the 
new  and  everlasting  covenant,  and  if  she  be  with  another 
man,  and  I  have  not  appointed  unto  her  by  the  holy 
anointing,  she  hath  committed  adultery,  and  shall  be 
destroyed. 

If  she  be  not  in  the  new  and  everlasting  covenant,  and 
she  be  with  another  man,  she  has  committed  adultery; 

And  if  her  husband  be  with  another  woman,  and  he 
was  under  a  vow,  he  hath  broken  his  vow,  and  hath 
committed  adultery. 

And  if  she  hath  not  committed  adultery,  but  is  inno 
cent,  and  hath  not  broken  her  vow,  and  she  knoweth  it, 
and  I  reveal  it  unto  you,  my  servant  Joseph,  then  shall 
you  have  power,  by  the  power  of  my  Holy  Priesthood,  to 
take  her,  and  give  her  unto  him  that  hath  not  committed 
adultery,  but  hath  been  faithful ;  for  he  shall  be  a  ruler 
over  many ; 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM       423 

For  I  have  conferred  upon  you  the  keys  and  power  of 
the  Priesthood,  wherein  I  restore  all  things,  and  make 
known  unto  you  all  things  in  due  time. 

And  verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  whatsoever  you 
seal  on  earth,  shall  be  sealed  in  heaven ;  and  whatsoever 
you  bind  on  earth,  in  my  name,  and  by  my  word,  saith 
the  Lord,  and  it  shall  be  eternally  bound  in  the  heavens ; 
and  whosesoever  sins  you  remit  on  earth  shall  be  remitted 
eternally  in  the  heavens ;  and  whosesoever  sins  you  retain 
on  earth,  shall  be  retained  in  heaven. 

And  again,  verily  I  say,  whomsoever  you  bless,  I  will 
bless,  and  whomsoever  you  curse,  I  will  curse,  saith  the 
Lord ;  for  I,  the  Lord,  am  thy  God. 

And  again,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  my  servant  Joseph, 
that  whatsoever  you  give  on  earth,  and  to  whomsoever 
you  give  any  one  on  earth,  by  my  word,  and  according 
to  my  law,  it  shall  be  visited  with  blessings,  and  not 
cursings,  and  with  my  power,  saith  the  Lord,  and  shall 
be  without  condemnation  on  earth,  and  in  heaven ; 

For  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  will  be  with  thee 
even  unto  the  end  of  the  world,  and  through  all  eternity ; 
for  verily,  I  seal  upon  you  your  exaltation,  and  prepare  a 
throne  for  you  in  the  kingdom  of  my  Father,  with 
Abraham  your  father. 

Behold,  I  have  seen  your  sacrifices  and  will  forgive  all 
your  sins;  I  have  seen  your  sacrifices,  in  obedience  to 
that  which  I  have  told  you ;  go,  therefore,  and  I  make  a 
way  for  your  escape,  as  I  accepted  the  offering  of  Abra 
ham,  of  his  son  Isaac. 

Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  a  commandment  I  give  unto 
mine  handmaid,  Emma  Smith,  your  wife,  whom  I  have 
given  unto  you,  that  she  stay  herself,  and  partake  not  of 
that  which  I  commanded  you  to  offer  unto  her ;  for  I  did 


424     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

it,  saith  the  Lord,  to  prove  you  all,  as  I  did  Abraham ; 
and  that  I  might  require  an  offering  at  your  hand,  by 
covenant  and  sacrifice ; 

And  let  mine  handmaid,  Ernma  Smith,  receive  all 
those  that  have  been  given  unto  my  servant  Joseph,  and 
who  are  virtuous  and  pure  before  me;  and  those  who  are 
not  pure,  and  have  said  they  were  pure,  shall  be  des 
troyed,  saith  the  Lord  God. 

For  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  ye  shall  obey  my 
voice ;  and  I  give  unto  my  servant  Joseph,  that  he  shall 
be  made  a  ruler  over  many  things,  for  he  hath  been  faith 
ful  over  a  few  things,  and  from  henceforth  I  will  strengthen 
him. 

And  I  command  mine  handmaid,  Emma  Smith,  to 
abide  and  cleave  unto  my  servant  Joseph,  and  to  none 
else.  But  if  she  will  not  abide  this  commandment,  she 
shall  be  destroyed,  saith  the  Lord ;  for  I  am  the  Lord 
thy  God,  and  will  destroy  her,  if  she  abide  not  in  my 
law; 

But  if  she  will  not  abide  this  commandment,  then  shall 
my  servant  Joseph  do  all  things  for  her,  even  as  he  hath 
said  ;  and  I  will  bless  him  and  multiply  him,  and  give 
unto  him  an  hundredfold  in  this  world,  of  fathers  and 
mothers,  brothers  and  sisters,  houses  and  lands,  wives 
and  children,  and  crowns  of  eternal  lives  in  the  eternal 
worlds. 

And  again,  verily  I  say,  let  mine  handmaid  forgive  My 
servant  Joseph  his  trespasses ;  and  then  shall  she  be  for 
given  her  trespasses,  wherein  she  has  trespassed  against 
me ;  and  I,  the  Lord  thy  God,  will  bless  her,  and  multi 
ply  her,  and  make  her  heart  to  rejoice. 

And  again,  I  say,  let  not  my  servant  Joseph  put  his 
property  out  of  his  hands,  lest  an  enemy  come  and  de- 


POLYGAMY  AND  HYPNOTISM       425 

stroy  him ;  for  Satan  seeketh  to  destroy ;  for  I  am  the 
Lord  thy  God,  and  he  is  my  servant ;  and  behold  1  and  lo, 
I  am  with  him,  as  I  was  with  Abraham,  thy  father,  even 
unto  his  exaltation  and  glory. 

Now,  as  touching  the  law  of  the  Priesthood,  there  are 
many  things  pertaining  thereunto. 

Verily,  if  a  man  be  called  of  my  Father,  as  was  Aaron, 
by  mine  own  voice,  and  by  the  voice  of  Him  that  sent 
me :  and  I  have  endowed  him  with  the  keys  of  the  power 
of  this  Priesthood,  if  he  do  anything  in  my  name,  and 
according  to  my  la\y,  and  by  my  word,  he  will  not  com 
mit  sin,  and  I  will  justify  him. 

Let  no  one,  therefore,  set  on  my  servant  Joseph ;  for  I 
will  justify  him ;  for  he  shall  do  the  sacrifice  which  I  re 
quire  at  his  hands,  for  his  transgressions,  saith  the  Lord 
your  God. 

And  again,  as  pertaining  to  the  law  of  the  Priesthood  : 
If  any  man  espouse  a  virgin,  and  desire  to  espouse  an 
other,  and  the  first  give  her  consent ;  and  if  he  espouse 
the  second,  and  they  are  virgins,  and  have  vowed  to  no 
other  man,  then  is  he  justified ;  he  cannot  commit  adultery 
for  they  are  given  unto  him;  for  he  cannot  commit 
adultery  with  that  that  belongeth  unto  him  and  to  no 
one  else ; 

And  if  he  have  ten  virgins  given  unto  him  by  this  law, 
he  cannot  commit  adultery,  for  they  belong  to  him,  and 
they  are  given  unto  him,  therefore  is  he  justified. 

But  if  one  or  either  of  the  ten  virgins,  after  she  is 
espoused,  shall  be  with  another  man  ;  she  has  committed 
adultery,  and  shall  be  destroyed ;  for  they  are  given  unto 
him  to  multiply  and  replenish  the  earth,  according  to  my 
commandment,  and  to  fulfil  the  promise  which  was  given 
by  my  Father  before  the  foundation  of  the  world ;  and 


426     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

for  their  exaltation  in  the  eternal  worlds,  that  they  may 
bear  the  souls  of  men ;  for  herein  is  the  work  of  my  Fa 
ther  continued,  that  He  may  be  glorified. 

And  again,  verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you,  if  any  man 
have  a  wife,  who  holds  the  keys  of  this  power,  and  he 
teaches  unto  her  the  law  of  my  Priesthood,  as  pertaining 
to  these  things,  then  shall  she  believe,  and  administer 
unto  him,  or  she  shall  be  destroyed,  saith  the  Lord  your 
God,  for  I  will  destroy  her ;  for  I  will  magnify  my  name 
upon  all  those  who  receive  and  abide  in  my  law. 

Therefore,  it  shall  be  lawful  in  me,  if  she  receive  not 
this  law,  for  him  to  receive  all  things,  whatsoever  I,  the 
Lord  his  God,  will  give  unto  him,  because  she  did  not 
administer  unto  him  according  to  my  word;  and  she 
then  becomes  the  transgressor ;  and  he  is  exempt  from 
the  law  of  Sarah,  who  administered  unto  Abraham  ac 
cording  to  the  law,  when  I  commanded  Abraham  to  take 
Hagar  to  wife. 

And  now,  as  pertaining  to  this  law,  verily,  verily  I  say 
unto  you,  I  will  reveal  more  unto  you,  hereafter ;  there 
fore,  let  this  suffice  for  the  present.  Behold,  I  am  Alpha 
and  Omega.  Amen.' 


V 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE  following  200  odd  works  have  been  con 
sulted  for  this  study.  They  comprise  selections 
from  a  card  catalogue  of  about  1 200  titles,  which  I 
have  compiled  from  recent  church  catalogues  at 
home  and  abroad,  and  also  from  such  bibliographies 
as  are  given  by  Bancroft,  Berrian,  Bertrand,  Burton, 
Callahan,  Stenhouse  and  Woodward. 

The  notable  public  collections  of  Mormoniana  in 
America  are  four  in  number:— The  Church  Ar 
chives  at  Salt  Lake  City;  Government  publications  at 
Washington;  the  Berrian  Collection,  New  York 
Public  Library,  rich  in  first  editions  and  rare  publica 
tions  of  the  early  Church;  the  Collection  of  the 
State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin  at  Madison; 
which  has  been  of  late  augmented  by  the  loan  of 
the  private  collection  of  Mr.  A.  T.  Schroeder,  late  of 

Salt   Lake  City,    embracing  448  books,  43  bound 
429 


430    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

volumes  of  newspaper  files,  232  bound  volumes  of 
periodicals,  and  550  pamphlets. 


ACTS  of  the  Elders,  commonly  called  the  Book  of  Abraham 
Boston,  1848. 

ADAMS  (G.  J.)— A  Few  Plain  Facts,   pp.  16.     Bedford,  1841. 

ADAMS  (G.  Q.)— Lecture  on  Baptism  for  the  Dead.  pp.  12. 
New  York,  1844. 

ADAMS  COUNTY,  Illinois.  History  of  its  Cities,  Towns,  etc. 
pp.  971.  Chicago,  1879. 

ADDRESS,  AN,  to  the  Sons  and  Daughters  of  Zion.  pp.  48. 
Kirtland,  O.,  1851. 

ADVOCATE.     The  Saints'  Advocate.     Piano,  111.,  1879-1886. 

AMERICAN  HOME  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  Circular, 
Boston,  May,  1878. 

ANDREE  (KARL.) — Geographische  Wanderungen.  Die  Mor- 
monen  und  ihr  Land.  Dresden,  1859. 

ANDERSON,  (EDWARD  H.)— History  of  the  Church.  Salt  Lake 
City,  1901. 

ARCHAEOLOGICAL  COMMITTEE  REPORT.  Evidences  in 
support  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.  Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

ARTHUR  (WILLIAM) — The  Antiquarian,  and  General  Review. 
Lansingburgh,  N.  Y.,  1847. 

AUSTIN  (EMILY  M.) — Mormonism;  or  Life  Among  the  Mor 
mons.  Madison,  Wis.,  1882. 

BACHELER  (O.)— Mormonism  Exposed,  pp.  48.  New  York, 
1838. 

BANCROFT  (HUBERT  HOWE.)— History  of  Utah.  A.  D.  1540- 
1887.  pp.  808  (Bibliography,  pp.  xxi-xlviii).  San  Fran 
cisco,  1890. 

Literary  Industries.     New  York,  1891. 

BARCLAY.     Mormonism  Exposed,  1884. 

BEADLE  (J.  H.)— Life  in  Utah,  or,  Mysteries  and  Crimes  of 

Mormonism,  etc.     Philadelphia,   1870. 
Western  Wilds.     Detroit,  Mich.,  1877. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  431 

BEERS  (R.  W.)— The  Mormon  Puzzle,  pp.  195.  New  York, 
1887. 

BELISLE  (ORVILLA  S.)— The  Prophets,  or  Mormonism  Un 
veiled,  pp.  412.  Philadelphia,  1855. 

BENNETT  (FRED  E.)— Fred  Bennett,  the  Mormon  Detective. 
Chicago,  1887. 

BENNETT  (JOHN  C.)— History  of  the  Saints.  Portraits  of  Ben 
nett  and  Joseph  Smith  in  Uniform,  pp.  344.  Boston,  1842. 

BERRY  (JOHN.)— Plain  Facts  Against  the  Latter-day  Saints, 
pp.  II.  Altringham,  1841. 

BISHOP  (F.  G.)— An  Address,     pp.  25.     Kirtland,  O.,  1851. 

BERTRAND  (L.  A.)— Memoires   d'un    Mormon    (with   Biblio 
graphy'),     pp.  323.     Paris,  n.  d. 
BLAIR  (W.  W.)— Joseph  the  Seer.     pp.  IV,  5-200.     1887. 

BOWES  (JOHN.) — Mormonism  Exposed  in  its  Swindling,  Poly 
gamy  and  Licentious  Principles,  etc.  pp.  71.  London,  1851. 

BRIGGS  (J.  \V.)— Basis  of  Polygamy,     pp.  8.  n.  p.,  n.  d. 
Brighamite  Doctrines,     p.  8.     Piano,  111.,  n.  d. 

Word  of  Consolation   to   Saints   Scattered  Abroad,     pp.  16. 

Westbromwich,  1853. 

BROTHERTON  (E.)— Mormonism  and  the  Prophet  Joseph 
Smith,  pp.  36.  Manchester,  n.  d. 

BROWN  (BENJAMIN.)— Testimonies  for  the  Truth.  pp.  32. 
Liverpool,  1853. 

BROWN  (HENRY.) — History  of  Illinois  from  its  First  Discovery. 
(Mormons  in  Illinois,  386-403.  Life  and  death  of  Joseph 
Smith,  487-492.)  New  York,  1844. 

BROWN  (H.  K.) — Artemus  Ward's  Lecture  on  the  Mormons,  pp. 
64.  London,  1882. 

BURGESS  ( J.  M.)— Book  of  Mormon  Contradictory  to  Common 
Sense,  etc.  pp.  30.  Liverpool,  1850. 

BURNETT  (PETER  H.) — Recollections  and  Opinions  of  an  Old 
Pioneer.  New  York,  1880. 

BURNS  (D.) — Mormonism  Explained  and  Exposed,  pp.  56. 
London,  1854. 

BUSCH  (M.)— Die  Mormonen,  Ihr  Prophet,  Ihr  Statt  und  Ihr 
Glaube.  Leipsic,  1855. 


432     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

BURTON  (RICHARD  F.)— City  of  the  Saints,  etc.  x,  707  pp. 
(Bibliography,  pp.  250,  309.)  London,  1862. 

CAKE  (L.  B.) — Old  Manuscript  Found — Peep-stone  Joe  Exposed, 
New  York,  1899. 

CALL  (LAMONI.) — 2,000  Changes  in  the  Book  of  Mormon,  pp. 
128.  Bountiful,  Utah,  1899. 

CALL  AH  AN  (D,  A.)— A  Catalogue  of  Books,  chiefly  on  Mor- 
monism.  Salt  Lake  City,  [1899?] 

CAMPBELL    (ALEXANDER.) — Delusions,  An    Analysis    of    the 

Book  of  Mormon,  etc.     pp.  16.     Boston,  1832. 
Memoirs.     Volume  II,  1868. 

CANNON  (GEORGE  Q.)— Life  of  Joseph  Smith,  the  Prophet, 
pp.  512.  Salt  Lake  City,  1888. 

My  First  Mission.     Salt  Lake  City,  1882. 

Writings    from    the    'Western    Standard.'     pp.    XIV,    512 

Liverpool,  1864. 

CASWALL  (HENRY.) — Mormonism  and  Its  Author,  pp.  16. 
London,  1852. 

CATECHISM  for  children.     Salt  Lake  City,  1882. 

CHAPMAN  (F.  W.)— The  Pratt  Family.  (Contains  accounts  of 
Parley  P.  and  Orson  Pratt.}  Hartford,  1864. 

CHURCH  or  Kingdom  of  God,  The.     Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 
CLARK  (JOHN  A.)— Gleanings  by  the  Way.     Philadelphia,  1842. 

CLARKE  (R.) — Mormonism  Unmasked,  pp,  32,  3  ed.  Lon 
don,  [184-]. 

CLEAVELAND  (N.)— Address  at  Topsfield,  Mass.  2Ooth  Anni 
versary.  (Appendix  contains  genealogy  of  Joseph  Smith, 
senior.']  New  York,  1851. 

CODMAN   (JOHN.) — Mormon  Country,     pp.    225.     New  York, 

1874. 
Round  Trip  by  way  of  Panama.  •  (Mormons,  pp.  56-58,  169- 

201.)     New  York,  1879. 

CORNABY  (HANNAH.) — Autobiography  and  Poems,  pp.  158. 
Salt  Lake  City,  1881. 

CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  PALESTINE  TOURISTS. 
(Letters  by  George  A.  Smith,  Lorenzo  Snow,  Paul  A.  Schettler 
and  Eliza  R.  Snow  of  Utah.)  pp.  386.  Salt  Lake  City,  1875. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  433 

CORRILL  (JOHN.)— Brief  History  of  Church  of  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  Including  their  Doctrine  and  Discipline,  pp.  50. 
St.  Louis,  1839. 

DANIELS  (W.  M.)— A  Correct  Account  of  the  Murder  of  Gen 
erals  Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith,  at  Carthage,  by  an  eye-wit 
ness,  pp.  23.  Nauvoo,  1845. 

DAVIDSON  (A.)  AND  STUVE  (B.)—  History  of  Illinois,  1673 
to  1873.  Springfield,  1874. 

DAVIDSON  (MATILDA.)— Folly  and  Falsehood  of  Book  of  Mor 
mon,  pp.  4.  Hexham,  n.  d. 

DAVIES  (RICHARD.) — Mormonism  Unmasked,     pp.  24.     Burn 
ley,  [1834]. 
DAVIESS  County,  Missouri,  History  of.     Kansas  City,  1882. 

DERRY  (ELDER  C.)— Manual  of  the  Priesthood.  Lamoni.  la., 
1890. 

DESERET  NEWS.     Salt  Lake  City,  1852-1887. 
DESERET  WEEKLY.     Salt  Lake  City,  1888-1898. 

DICKINSON  (MRS.  ELLEN  E.)— New  Light  on  Mormonism. 
Introduction  by  Thurlow  Weed.  New  York,  1885. 

DISCIPLEISM,  or  the  claims  of  Alexander  Campbell  to  a  Re- 
stored  Primitive  Christianity  Examined.  Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

DUNN  (B.  S.) — How  to  solve  the  Mormon  Problem,  pp.  30. 
1877. 

DOUGAL  ( LILY.)— The  Mormon  Prophet,  pp.  427.  New 
York,  1899. 

ELDER'S  JOURNAL.  Kirtland,  Ohio,  and  Far  West,  Mo. 
1837-9. 

EARLY  SCENES  IN  CHURCH  HISTORY.  Salt  Lake  City, 
1882. 

ENSIGN  to  the  Nations,     pp.  14.     n.  p.,  1851. 

ETOURNEAU  (M.)— Les  Mormons.  Portrait  of  Joseph  Smith. 
Paris,  1856. 

EVENING  AND  MORNING  STAR.  Independence,  Mo.,  1832. 
Kirtland,  O.,  1834. 

EVENTFUL  NARRATIVES.     Salt  Lake  City,  n.  d. 

FERNHAGEL  (D.  T.)— Die  Wahrheit  iiber  das  Mormonenthum. 
pp.  IV,  112.  ZUrich,  1889. 


434    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 
.• 

FERRIS  (MRS.  B.  G.)— The  Mormons  at  Home.  New  York, 
1856. 

FERRIS  (B.  G.)— Utah  and  the  Mormons.     New  York,  1854. 

FLOWER  (W.  B.)— The  Mormons.  The  Dream  and  the  Reality. 
London,  1857. 

FORD  (Gov.  THOMAS.)— History  of  Illinois.     Chicago,  1854. 

FOTSCH  (W.) — Zur  kenntnis  der  Mormonen  (In  «  Denkwiir- 
digkeiten  aus  der  Neuen  Welt/  Vol.  2,  pp.  126-251).  Bremen, 
[1891?] 

FRAGMENTS  OF  EXPERIENCE.  A  collection  of  sketches 
from  the  experience  of  Elders.  Salt  Lake  City,  1901. 

FRERE  (JOHN.)— A  Short  History  of  the  Mormonites.  pp.  24. 
London,  1850. 

FRIENDLY  WARNINGS  on  Mormonism.  By  a  Country 
Clergyman.  London,  1850. 

GEMS  for  the  Young  Folks.     Salt  Lake  City,  1883. 

GEMS  OF  TRUTH.  By  Orson  and  Parley  Pratt  and  Lorenzo 
Snow.  pp.  6 1 6.  Salt  Lake  City,  n.  d. 

GERHARD  (FREDERICK.)— Illinois :  As  It  Is,  etc.  (Mormons, 
pp.  89-123.)  Chicago,  1857. 

GILES.     Pure  Testimony  to  Latter-day  Saints,     pp.  45.     1875. 

GRANT  (J.  M.)— Truth  for  the  Mormons,  pp.  64.  Three  Letters 
to  the  New  York  Herald,  March  9th,  1852. 

GREELEY  (HORACE.)— Overland  Journey  from  New  York  to 
San  Francisco  in  1859.  New  York,  1860. 

GREEN  (N.  W.)— Fifteen  Years  Among  the  Mormons;  Being 
the  Narrative  of  Mrs.  Mary  Ettie  V.  Smith,  pp.  408.  New 
York,  1860. 

Mormonism  :  Its  Rise,  Progress,  and  Present  Condition ;  the 

narrative  of  Mrs.  Mary  E.  V.  Smith.  Hartford,  1870. 

GREENE  (JOHN  P.) — Expulsion  of  the  Mormons  from  Missouri 
pp.  43.  Cincinnati,  1839. 

GREGG  (THOMAS.)— The  Prophet  of  Palmyra.     New  York,  1890. 

GUERS  (EMILIUS.) — Irvingism  and  Mormonism  tested  by  Scrip 
ture.  London,  1854. 

GUNNISON  (J.  W.)— The  Mormons.     Philadelphia,  1857. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  435 

HAINING  (SAMUEL.)  —  Mormonism  Weighed  in  the  Balances. 
pp.  66.  Douglass,  Isle  of  Man,  1840. 

HANDBOOK  OF  MORMONISM.  pp.  50.  Salt  Lake  City, 
1882. 

HANDBOOK  OF  REFERENCE  to  the  history,  chronology,  re 
ligion  and  country  of  the  Latter-day  Saints.  Salt  Lake  City, 
1884. 

HARRIS  (W.)  —  Mormonism  Portrayed;  its  Errors  aud  Absurd 
ities  Exposed,  pp.  64.  Warsaw,  111.,  1841. 

HAWTHORNTHWAITE  (S.)—  Adventures  among  the  Mor 
mons.  pp.  132.  Manchester,  1857. 

HERALD.  The  True  Latter-day  Saints  Herald.  Cincinnati, 
and  Lamoni,  Iowa,  1860-1901. 

HICKMAN  (WILLIAM  A.)—  Brigham's  Destroying  Angel.  New 
York,  1872. 

HILL  (G.  W.)_  A  String  of  Pearls.     Salt  Lake  City,  1882. 

HOLST  (H.  VON.)—  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States. 
Volume  vi.  Chicago,  1889. 

HOWE  (E.  D.)—  Mormonism  Unveiled.  (Rare.)  Painesville,  O., 
1834. 

HOWE  (HENRY.)—  Historical  Collections  of  Ohio.  (Mormons, 
pp.  282-7.)  Cincinnati,  1850. 

HUNT  (JAMES  H.)  —  Mormonism.  Origin,  rise  and  progress, 
with  appendix  on  the  death  of  Joseph  and  Hyrum  Smith,  by 
G.  W.  Westbrook.  St.  Louis,  1844. 

HYDE  (JOHN.)  —  Mormonism  :  its  Leaders  and  Designs,  pp.  xii, 
1  3-335-  New  York> 


HYDE   (ORSON.)  —  A  Voice  from  Jerusalem,     pp.  36.     Boston, 
1842. 

IDOLATRY,     pp.4.     Piano,  la.,  [184-]. 
IMPOSTURE  Unmasked,     pp.  32.     Isle  of  Man,  1841. 

JAQUES  (JOHN.)—  Catechism  for  Children,    pp.  81.    Salt  Lake 
City,  1870. 

JEFFERIES  (W.)—  The  Gospel  Pioneer,     pp.  23.     n.  p.,  n.  d. 

JOHNSON  (JOSEPH.)—  Great  Mormon  Fraud,   pp.  32.    Manches 
ter,  1885. 


436    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

KANE  (THOMAS  L.)— The  Mormons,  pp.  92.  Philadelphia,  1850. 

KENNEDY  (J.  H.) — Early  Days  of  Mormonism.  Palmyra, 
Kirtland  and  Nauvoo.  New  York,  1888. 

Three  Witnesses  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,    pp.  15.    n.  p.,  1890^ 

KIDDER  (DANIEL  P.) — Mormonism  and  The  Mormons,  pp.  342. 
New  York,  1842. 

KIMBALL  (HEBER  C.)— Journal.     Salt  Lake  City,  1882. 
KNIGHT  (LYDIA.)— History  of.     Salt  Lake  City,  1883. 
KNIGHT  (NEWEL)— Journal.     Salt  Lake  City,  1883. 
LABORS  IN  THE  VINEYARD.     Salt  Lake  City,  1884. 

LATTER-DAY  SAINTS'  Messenger  and  Advocate.  Edited  by 
Oliver  Cowdery.  Vols.  I,  2,  3.  Kirtland,  1834-37. 

LATTER-DAY  SAINTS'  MILLENNIAL  STAR.  Edited  by 
Parley  P.  Pratt  and  George  Q.  Cannon.  Manchester,  1841, 
Liverpool,  1893. 

LEE  (JOHN  D.) — Mormonism  Unveiled.     St.  Louis,  Mo.,  1892. 

LITTLEFIELD   (L.  O.)— The   Martyrs:     Joseph  and  Hyrum 

Smith,  etc.     Salt  Lake  City,  1882. 
Reminiscences  of  Latter-day  Saints.     Logan,  Utah,  1888. 

MACK  (SOLOMON.) — Narrative  of  the  life  of.  (Maternal  grand 
father  of  Joseph  Smith,  junior.)  Windsor,  [1810]. 

MACKAY  (CHARLES.)— The  Mormons,  or  Latter-day  Saints :  a 
Contemporary  History.  (  This  book  was  probably  written  by 
Henry  May  hew.)  pp.  308.  London,  1851. 

The  Mormons,     pp.  viii,  320.     London,  1852. 

M'CHESNEY  QAMES.)— An  Antidote  to  Mormonism.  Revised 
by  G.  J.  Bennet.  pp.  60.  Supplement,  pp.  4.  New  York, 
1838-9. 

MESSENGER  AND  ADVOCATE,  of  the  Church  of  Christ. 
(Rigdonite.  See  *  Latter-day  Saints  Messenger  and  Advocate,' 
of  which  this  is  a  continuation.)  Pittsburg,  July  I,  1845 — 
February,  1846. 

MONTGOMERY  (M.  W.)— The  Mormon  Delusion.     Boston  and 

Chicago,  1890. 

MORMON,  THE.     Volumes  I  and  II.     New  York,  1855-6. 
MUSSER    (ELDER  A.)— The  Fruits  of  •  Mormonism.'     pp.  35. 

Salt  Lake  City,  1878. 
MYSTERIES  of  the  Endowment  House,     pp.  36,  n.  p.,  n.  d. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  437 

NAUVOO  EXPOSITOR  Vol.  i,  No.  i.  (All  fver  published.) 
pp.  4.  Nauvoo,  June  7,  1844. 

NAUVOO  LEGION.     Revised  Laws.     Nauvoo,  1844. 

NEW  WEST  EDUCATION  Commission,  The.  Annual  Reports. 
Nos.  3-12.  Chicago,  1883-1892. 

NEW  YORK  MESSENGER.  (Continuation  of  '  The  Prophet.') 
S.  Brannan,  Publisher,  P.  P.  Pratt,  Editor.  Vol.  II.  Nos. 
1-16.  New  York,  1845. 

NICHOLSON    (JoHN.) — Comprehensive    Salvation,      pp.    16. 

Liverpool,  1880. 
The  Modern  Prophet,     pp.  24,  n.  p.,  n.  d. 

OLNEY  (O.  H.) — Absurdities  of  Mormonism.  pp.  32.  Han 
cock  County,  111.,  1843. 

OLSHAUSEN  (THEODOR  VON.) — Geschichte  der  Mormonen. 
Gottingen,  1856. 

ORIGIN  OF  BOOK  OF  MORMON,     pp.  7.     Piano,  1876. 

PADDOCK  (MRS.  A.  G.)— The  Fate  of  Madame  La  Tour.  New 
York,  1 88 1. 

PAGE  (JOHN  E.)— The  Spaulding  Story,  pp.  16.  Piano,  111., 
1866. 

PARK  (MRS.  S.  E.) — Mormons  :  their  Religion,  etc.  4th  ed.  pp. 
23.  San  Francisco,  1875. 

PARRY  (E.  F.)— Sketches  of  Missionary  Life.  Salt  Lake  City, 
1901. 

PARSONS  (TYLER.) — Mormon  Fanaticism  Exposed,  pp.  104. 
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PENROSE    (CHARLES    W.)— 'Mormon'    Doctrine,    Plain    and 

Simple.     Salt  Lake  City,  1882. 
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City,  1901. 

PIERCE  (P.  B.) — The  Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  pp.  694. 
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PRATT  (ORSON.) — Absurdities  of  Immaterialism.  pp.  32.  Liv 
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Ancient  American  Records,  pp.  36.  New  York,  1841. 

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Great  First  Cause,     pp.  16.     Liverpool,  1851. 


438     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

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Universal  Apostasy,     pp.  16.     Liverpool,  1857. 

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signed  as  an  Introduction  to  the  First  Principles  of  Spiritual 
Philosophy,  Religion,  Law  and  Government ;  as  delivered 
by  the  Ancients,  and  as  restored  in  this  age  for  the  final  de 
velopment  of  Universal  Peace,  Truth  and  Knowledge,  pp. 
xv.,  173.  Liverpool,  1855. 

Late  Persecution  of  the  Church  of  Latter- Day  Saints,  etc. 

pp.  215.  New  York,  1840. 

A  Voice  of  Warning  and  Instruction  to  all  People,  pp.  216. 

New  York,  1839. 

PROCLAMATION  of  the  Twelve  Apostles  of  the  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  to  all  the  Kings  of  the 
World ;  to  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America,  to 
the  Governors  of  the  Several  States,  and  the  Rulers  and  Peo 
ple  of  all  Nations,  pp.  1 6.  New  York,  1845. 

PURE  GOSPEL  of  Christ,  The.     Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

QUINCY  (JosiAH.)     Figures  of  the  Past.     (Joseph  Smith,  Jun- 

ior>  P-  37°  ff-) 
RAE  (W.  F.)— Westward  by  Rail.     pp.  391.     London,  1871. 

REID  (CoL.  J.  M.)— Sketches  of  the  Old  Settlers.  The  Mormon 
Bandits  and  Danite  Band.  Keokuk,  1876. 

RELIC  LIBRARY  (THE.)— Containing  the  Writings  of  Joseph 
Smith  the  Seer,  and  Polygamy,  or  the  Veil  Lifted.  York, 
Neb.,  1889. 

REMY  (J.)  and  BRENCHLEY  (J.  L.)— A  Journey  to  Great  Salt 
Lake  City,  with  sketch  of  the  Mormons.  (Plate  of  Deseret 
Alphabet.)  London,  1861. 

RETURN,  THE  [Monthly.]     Independence,  Mo.,  1892. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  439 

REYNOLDS  (GEORGE.) — The  Myth  of  the  Manuscript  Found, 

Salt  Lake  City,  1884. 
The  Story  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.     Salt  Lake  City,  1888. 

REYNOLDS  (JOHN.) — My  own  times.  (Mormons,  pp.  562- 
600.)  pp.  600.  Belleville,  111.,  1855. 

RICE  (HARVEY.) — Pioneers  of  the  Western  Reserve.  Boston, 
1883. 

RICHARDS  (F.  D.)— A  Compendium  of  the  Faith  and  Doc 
trines  of  the  Latter-day  Saints.  Liverpool,  1857. 

RIGDON  (SIDNEY.) — The  Latter-day  Saints'  Messenger  and  Ad 
vocate.  (Nos.  iz  and  12  Entitled  the  «  Messenger  and  Advo 
cate  of  the  Church  of  Christ?}  Pittsburg,  1844-5. 

ROBERTS  (B.  H.)— The  Second  Coming  of  the  Messiah.  Salt 
Lake  City,  1901. 

ROLLO  (J.  B.) — Mormonism  Exposed,     pp.   12.     London,  n.  d. 

RUPP  (I.  DANIEL.)— /fc  Pasa  Ekklesia.  An  Original  History 
of  the  Religious  Denominations  of  the  United  States. 
Their  Rise,  Progress,  Statistics  and  Doctrines.  Written  by 
Eminent  Professors  of  the  Several  Denominations.  ( The  art 
icle  on  Mormonism  was  written  by  Joseph  Smith,  Junior.) 
Philadelphia,  1844. 

SABIN.     Bibliotheca  Americana.     Volumes  ix.  and  xii. 
SAINTS'  HERALD,  THE.— Official  weekly  publication  of  the 

Reorganized  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints ; 

Joseph  Smith,  Editor.     Lamoni,  la.,  1860-1902. 
SALT  LAKE  DAILY  TRIBUNE,  1873-1889. 
SALT  LAKE  WEEKLY  TRIBUNE,  1886-1892. 

SCHLAGINTWEIT  (R.  VON.)— Die  Mormonen.  pp.  318. 
Cologne,  1878. 

SCHROEDER  (A.  T.)— Mormonism  Considered,     pp.  35.     Salt 

Lake  City,  1897. 
The  Origin  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,  examined  in  its  Relation 

to  Spaulding's  Manuscript  Found,     pp.  56.     Salt  Lake  City, 

1901. 

SEXTON   (GEORGE.) — Portraiture  of  Mormonism,  etc.     pp.  113. 

London,  1849. 
SHEEN  (ISAAC.)— Great  Contrast,     pp.  8.     Piano,  111.,  1867. 


440    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

SHELDON  (WILLIAM.) — Mormonism  Examined,  pp.  184. 
Brodhead,  Wis.,  n.  d. 

SIMPSON  (W.  SPARROW.)— Mormonism :  Its  History,  Doc 
trines,  and  Practices,  pp.  62.  London,  1853. 

SMITH  (ALEXANDER  H.)— Polygamy :  Was  it  an  original 
Tenet  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  ? 
pp.  8.  Piano,  n.  d. 

SMITH  (DAVID  H.)— The  Bible  versus  Polygamy,  pp.  14. 
Piano,  [i  8— ]. 

SMITH  (GEORGE  A.)— Plea.  n.  p.,  1852. 

The  Rise,  Progress,  and  Travels  of  the  Church,  etc.   Salt  Lake 

City,  1869. 

SMITH  (HERMAN  C.)— True  Succession  in  Church  Presidency. 
Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

The  Truth  Defended.  A  Reply  to  Elder  D.  H.  Bay's  Doc 
trines  and  Dogmas  of  Mormonism.  Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

SMITH  (JOSEPH,  JUNIOR.) — Articles  of  Faith,  pp.  2,  n.  p. 
[18-]. 

The  Book  of  Abraham.     Translated  by  Joseph  Smith  from 

Papyrus  found  in  the  Catacombs  of  Egypt,  pp.  56.  Liver 
pool,  1851. 

Book  of  Commandments,  for  the  Government  of  the  Church 

of  Christ.  Organized  according  to  law  on  the  6th  of  April,  1830. 
pp.  1 60.  (Exceedingly  rare,}  Zion,  Jackson  County,  Missouri. 
Published  by  W.  W.  Phelps  &  Co.,  1833. 

Salt  Lake  Tribune,  reprint,     pp.  93,  1884. 

The  Book  of  Mormon :  An  Account  written  by  the  Hand  of 

Mormon,  upon  plates  taken  from  the  plates  of  Nephi,  by 
Joseph  Smith,  Junior,  author  and  proprietor.  1st  ed.  12  mo, 
with  Preface,  pp.  590.  Palmyra,  E.  B.  Grandin,  for  the 
author,  1830. 

The  Book  of  Mormon :  An  Account  written  by  the  Hand  of 

Mormon,  upon  plates  taken  from  the  plates  of  Nephi.  Trans 
lated  by  Joseph  Smith,  Junior,  pp.  621.  2d  ed.  (Equally 
rare  as  the  first  edition  of  the  Book  of  Mormon.}  Kirtland, 
Ohio.  Printed  by  O.  Cowdery  &  Co.  for  P.  P.  Pratt  and  J. 
Goodson,  1837. 

Translated  by  Joseph  Smith,  Junior.  3d  ed.,  revised. 

Printed  by  Robinson  &  Smith.  Nauvoo,  1840. 

ist.  Europ.  Ed.  (from  the  2d  American  Ed.),  pp.  643. 

Liverpool,  1841. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  441 

Translated   by  Joseph   Smith.     4th  American   and   2d 

stereotype  ed.  Carefully  revised  by  the  Translator,  pp.  (4), 
7-571.  Nauvoo,  111.  Printed  by  Joseph  Smith,  1842. 

Translated  by  Joseph  Smith.     2d  Europ.  ed.     Liverpool, 

1849. 

Translated    by   Joseph   Smith,  Junior.     3d   Europ.   ed. 

Liverpool,  1852. 

4th  Europ.  ed.  pp.  xix.  438.     I  map.     Liverpool,  1854. 

Translated  by  Joseph  Smith,  Junior.     5th   Europ.  ed. 

Liverpool,  1854. 

Translated  by  Joseph  Smith,  Junior.      Reprinted  from 

3d.  Amer.  ed.,  carefully  revised  by  the  Translator,  pp.  xix. 
and  380.  New  York  [1859?] 

An  account  written  by  the  hand  of  Mormon,  upon  plates 

taken  from  the  plates  of  Nephi.  6th  Europ.  ed.  pp.  xii. 
and  563.  Liverpool.  Published  by  Brigham  Young,  June, 
1866. 

In  «  Deseret  Alphabet.'  pp.,  xi.  and  443.  New  York, 

1869. 

An  account  written  by  the  hand  of  Mormon,  upon  Plates 

taken  from  the  Plates  of  Nephi.  Translated  by  Joseph  Smith, 
Junior,  pp.  xii.  and  563.  Salt  Lake  City,  1871. 

Translated  by  Joseph  Smith,  Junior.  Reprinted  from  the 

3d  American  ed.  Piano,  111.,  1874. 

25th  ed.     pp.  545     Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

-Book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants  of  the  Church  of  the  Latter- 
day  Saints,  compiled  by  Joseph  Smith,  Junior.  Oliver  Cow- 
dery,  Sidney  Rigdon,  F.  G.  Williams,  proprietors,  pp.  282. 
Kirtland,  O.,  1835. 

3d  ed.     pp.  444     Nauvoo,  1845. 

ist  Europ.  ed.     Liverpool,  n.  d. 

2d  Europ.  ed.     pp.  336.     Liverpool,  1849. 

3d  Europ.  ed.     pp.  336.     Liverpool,  1852. 

Selected  from  the  Revelations  of  God.  By  Joseph  Smith, 

President.  4th  Europ.  ed.  pp.  xxiii.  and  336.  Liverpool, 
1854- 

Cincinnati,  1864. 

Given  to  Joseph  Smith,  Junior.  Divided  into  verses  by 

Orson  Pratt,  etc.  Salt  Lake  City,  1883. 

Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

Salt  Lake  City,  1901. 


442     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

Correspondence  with  Col.  John  Wentworth,  of  111.,  Gen.  James 

Arlington  Bennett,  of  Arlington  House,  Loud  Island,  and  John 
C.  Calhoun,  etc.  pp.  16.  New  York,  1844. 

History  of,  (supplement  to  Millennial  Star,  volume  xiv. )  Liv 
erpool,  1852. 

The  Pearl  of  Great  Price :  Being  a  Choice  Selection  from  the 

Revelations,  Translations,  and  Narratives  of  Joseph  Smith, 
First  Prophet,  and  Revelator  to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
Latter-day  Saints.  Facsimile  from  Book  of  Mormon,  pp. 
56.  Liverpool,  1851. 

Liverpool,  1852. 

Salt  Lake  City,  1891. 

The  Holy  Scriptures,  translated  and  corrected  by  the  Spirit 

of  Revelation.  Piano,  111.,  1867. 

Selection  from  the  Revelations,  Translations  and  Narratives 

of.  Salt  Lake  City,  n.  d. 

Views  of  the  Powers  and  Policy  of  the  Government  of  the 

United  States,  pp.  8.  Pittsburg,  1844. 

Visions  of  Joseph  Smith  the  Seer;  discoveries  of  ancient 

American  Records  and  Relics.  Piano,  1900. 

Voice  of  Truth,  containing  Gen.  Joseph  Smith's  correspond 
ence  with  Gen.  A.  Bennett,  Appeal  to  Green  Mountain  Boys, 
with  J.  C.  Calhoun,  Henry  Clay,  etc.,  etc.  pp.  64.  Nau- 
voo,  111.,  1844. 

The  Writings  of  Joseph  Smith,  the  Seer.  Martyred  June  27, 

1844.  48pp.  York,  Neb.,  1889. 

And  others.  Report  of  Trial  of,  for  high  treason  and  other 

crimes  against  the  State  of  Missouri.  Senate  Document,  Feb. 
15,  1841. 

SMITH  (JOSEPH  30.) — Reply  to  Orson  Pratt,  by  Joseph  Smith, 
President  of  the  Reorganized  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  pp.  16.  Piano,  [18 — ]. 

Who  then  can  be  Saved  ?     pp.  4.     Piano,  n.  d. 

SMITH  (JOSEPH  30)  AND  (HERMAN  C.)— History  of  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints.  Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 

SMITH  (JOSEPH)  AND  TAYLOR  (J.)— Items  of  Church  History, 
Covenant,  etc.  pp.  32.  Salt  Lake,  1886. 

SMITH  (Lucv.) — Biographical  Sketches  of  Joseph  Smith  and  his 
Progenitors  for  many  Generations.  (Rare.)  pp.  297.  Liver 
pool,  1853. 

Biographical  Sketches  of  Joseph  Smith,  the  Prophet,  and  his 

Progenitors.  Piano,  111.,  1880. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  443 

SMITH  (T.  W.)— The  «  One  Baptism  ' ;  Its  Mode,  Subjects,  Pre 
requisites,  and  Design.  Who  shall  Administer?  pp.  18. 
Piano,  n.  d. 

The   '  One   Body  ' ;  or,  The   Church  of  Christ  under  the  Apo- 

stleship,  and  under  the  Apostasy,     pp.  16.     Piano,  n.  d. 

Spiritualism  viewed    from  a  Scriptural  Standpoint,     pp.  20. 

Piano,  n.  d. 

SMUCKER  (SAMUEL  M.) — History  of  all  Religions.  (Mormons, 
pp.  98-105.)  pp.  350.  New  York,  1884. 

SMUCKER  (SAMUEL  M.)  [EDITOR.]— The  Religious,  Social  and 
Political  History  of  the  Mormons.  111.  pp.  46.  New  York, 
1860. 

SMYTHE  (W.  E.)— Conquest  of  Arid  America.     1900. 

SNOW  (ELIZA  R.)— Poems,  Religious,  Historical  and  Political. 
Vol.  I.  Liverpool,  1856. 

SNOW  (LORENZO.) — Biography  and  Family  Record  of.  By  Eliza 
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The  Only  Way  to  be  saved,     n.  p.,  n.  d. 

The  Voice  of  Joseph,     pp.  19.     Liverpool,  1852. 

SNOW-SMITH  (ELIZA  R.)— Life  and  Labors  of.  Salt  Lake 
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SPAULDING  (SOLOMON.) — 'The  Manuscript  Found';  or  «  Man 
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SPENCER  (ORSON.)— Letters,  including  the  Letter  on  Patriarchal 

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1853- 
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STENHOUSE  (T.  B.  H.)— Le  Reflecteur,  organe  de  L'Eglisede 
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The  Rocky  Mountain  Saints.  (Bibliography,  p.  741.)  pp. 

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STENHOUSE  (MRS.  T.  B.  H.)— «  Tell  it  All :  '     The  Story  of  a 

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Beecher  Stowe.     pp.  623.    Hartford,  1874. 
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Prophet,  and  the  Coming  Forth  of  the  Book  of  Mormon,     pp. 

48.     Salt  Lake  City,  1893. 


444     THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

STRANG  (J.  J.)— Revelations  of.    pp.  22.     n.  p.  1885. 
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STRONG  (JosiAH.)— Our  Country.  (Mormons,  pp.  59-68.) 
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TALMAGE  ( JAMES  E.)— Articles  of  Faith,     pp.  498.    Salt  Lake 

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TAYLDER  (T.  W.  P.)— The  Mormon's  own  Book ;  or  Mormonism 
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TAYLOR  (B.)— Testimonies  for  the  Truth,     pp.  32.     1853. 
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TAYLOR  (JOHN.)— Three  Nights  Public  Discussion,  pp.  49. 
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TAYLOR  (THOMAS)— Complete  Failure  of  an  Ordained  Priest, 
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of  useful  Information,  in  regard  to  the  Doctrines,  History, 
Principles,  Persecutions,  Deliverances,  and  Onward  Progress 
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Commerce,  111.  [*.  e.,  Nauvoo],  and  Nauvoo,  Nov.  1839,  to 
Nov.  i,  1845. 

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TUCKER  (PoMEROY.) — Origin,  Rise  and  Progress  of  Mormon- 
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TULLIDGE  (E.  W.)—  History  of  Salt  Lake  City  (with  Biograph 
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New  York,  1878. 


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TULLIDGE'S  Quarterly  Magazine.     Salt  Lake  City,  1881-85. 

TURNER  (J.  B.) — Mormonism  in  all  Ages;  with  a  biography  of 
Joseph  Smith,  pp.  304.  New  York,  1842. 

UTAH  and  its  People,  Facts,  etc.,  by  a  Gentile,  pp.  47.  Salt 
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UTAH  REVIEW.     Salt  Lake  City,  1881-2. 

UTAH  STATEHOOD :  Reasons  why  it  should  not  be  Granted, 
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VAN  DUSEN.  Startling  Disclosures  of  the  Wonderful  Cere 
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VAN  DUSEN  (I.  McGEE  and  MARIA.)— Positively  True.  A 
Dialogue  between  Adam  and  Eve,  The  Lord  and  the  Devil, 
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The  '  Endowment.'     pp.  32.     New  York,  1852. 

VICTOR  (M.  V.  F.)— Mormon  Wives,  pp.  xii,  25-326.  New 
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VOICE  OF  JOSEPH.  A  brief  account  of  Latter-day  Saints  in 
Utah,  with  « An  Exile's '  Memorial  to  Congress,  pp.  19. 
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WAITE  (MRS.  C.  V.) — The  Mormon  Prophet  and  his  Harem, 
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WAITE  (HENRY  RANDALL.) — Illiteracy  and  Mormonism.  pp. 
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WALKER  (S.  F.)— Ruins  Revisited.     Lamoni,  la.  1901. 

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WAS  JOSEPH  SMITH  A  POLYGAMIST?     Lamoni,  la.,  1901. 
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446    THE  FOUNDER  OF  MORMONISM 

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WHITNEY  (HELEN  M.)— Plural  Marriage  as  Taught  by  Prophet 
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WHITNEY  (J.)— Mormonism  Unravelled,  Pseudo-Revelations, 
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WHITNEY  (O.  F.)— History  of  Utah  in  3  Vols.     pp.  725.     Salt 

Lake  City,  1892-8. 
Life  of  Heber  C.  Kimball,  an  Apostle,  the  Founder  of  the 

British  Mission,     pp.  520.     Salt  Lake  City,  1888. 

WINCHESTER  (B.) — Origin  of  the  Spaulding  Story,  concerning 
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WOODRUFF  (WiLFORD.)— Leaves  from  my  Journal,  pp.  96. 
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photographs,   and    autograph    letters.     (Berrian    Collection!) 

2  volumes.     New  York,  1880. 
Supplementary  Catalogue.     New  York,  n.  d. 

WYLE  (W.)— Mormon  Portraits,  or  the  Truth  about  the  Mor 
mon  Leaders  from  1830  to  1886.  pp.  320.  Salt  Lake  City, 
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YOUNG  (ANN  ELIZA.)— Wife  No.  19.    pp.  605.    Hartford,  1876. 

YOUNG  (BRIGHAM.) — Journal  of  Discourses  by  Brigham  Young, 
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Life  of.     pp.  173.     Salt  Lake  City,  1893. 

Resurrection,     pp.  n.     Salt  Lake  City,  1875. 

And  his  Twenty-Nine  Wives.  Biographical  Sketches,  pp. 

16.  Philadelphia,  1873. 


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